What Would You Give
by Eponastory
Summary: Dante ran into his childhood friend a few months after the events of Temen-Ni-Gru and she hung around with him until he made a huge mistake, or what he believes is a mistake on his part. She leaves for Redgrave City shortly after to study at another university. Seven years later, he sees her playing Blackjack at the table in the casino...What on Earth is she doing there? (Dante/OC)
1. Night at the Casino

**This story is originally posted on Wattpad. **

**This story is already mostly written and so is its sequels. I may do some editing later, but it is what it is for now. With that said, please enjoy this work of fiction because I know I do. **

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Dante asked the chestnut-haired woman in front of him as the bustle of the airport terminal went on around them. He couldn't go any further than this point because frankly he wasn't going anywhere.

She looked like she was going on vacation, but really, she was just going study abroad. She wore a simple pair of blue jeans and had her hair up in a ponytail leaving the tail end to hang over her shoulder. Her grey V-neck t-shirt fit her form just enough to entice any male within a thirty-foot radius. Dante was slightly jealous.

"Yeah. I've been cooped up the last so many years and missing out on opportunities it just makes sense." She looked at him and sighed. "Do you have to go everywhere in that getup?"

"Yeah. I have to meet up with Lady later and I don't feel like going home to change." He shrugged and then got serious again. He was going to miss her sass.

"Anyway, I have to go." She said and he nodded. "I'll see you when I see you." She held out her hand for a shake and instead of grabbing it he just brought her into a hug.

"Sorry, I couldn't resist." Her grey eyes widened, and she felt tears coming to her eyes. She would miss him too. "You take care of yourself and make sure you don't get into trouble. I don't want to have to pay for a plane ticket just to go pull you out of trouble." He said and the sound of his voice made her tighten her grip on him.

"I promise." She said as Dante released her. She wiped her eyes free of tears and turned to grab her carryon bag. "I have to go." She took it and swung the backpack over her shoulder before giving him a smile.

"Be careful Roe." Was all he said before he watched her walk out of his life. Or so he thought.

He didn't think he would see her again seven years later at a casino ship playing blackjack next to an old man. This was certainly not how he pictured his night going. He stood on the balcony overlooking the casino floor as people were playing slot machines, poker, craps, and roulette, but the chestnut-haired beauty at the blackjack table caught his interest as she sipped on a fruity drink.

Dante being the man he was didn't show any surprise at the fact she was there. Afterall, he had a job to do and he was a little early. He had some time to kill. He decided he was going to have to join in on the fun, so he walked down the stairs to the blackjack table and sat to her left. She paid no attention to him as she sipped on what he saw was a fuzzy naval.

"Deal me in on the next hand." Dante put some chips down and sat there waiting to see if Roe would react.

"You sound very confident." She said as she threw a chip into the pot raising the bet. "Hit me." Three of hearts. He took this opportunity to check her out and she didn't disappoint. Her long hair was up in a bun, but the silver dress she wore was very form fitting.

"What is a babe like you doing in a place like this all by herself?" He asked her, hoping she would answer back with that sass she always brought to the table.

"Working." She didn't look at him. "I fold." She said before getting up and walking away. He was left a little bit disappointed and decided to follow her. She had left her chips on the table anyway and it would be the right thing to return them to her.

Dante followed her to the bar where she sat down and a man came up to sit next to her ordering a glass of whiskey. He was a gentleman dressed in a very nice suit, something you would see on a man getting ready to make a bid at an auction. She said a few words to him before handing him a small box and he looked at the object inside with a small lens.

"Are you sure this is it?" The man said. If it weren't for Dante's good hearing, he wouldn't have heard a thing.

"Absolutely. Tracked the demon down myself and gave him a good deal." Roe said as she took a sip of her drink and then set the glass down on the bar. "It's no longer potent, but you know how that goes." What had she been doing the last seven years?

"This will bring in a lot of money for the house. We already have two clients in a bidding war and a third who is really thinking about getting in on it." The man said putting the box in the inside of his blazer and standing up. "I guess you are here to track something else down then?"

"More or less. Ever heard of King?" She said and glanced in Dante's direction taking notice of his position leaning up against the wall.

"The gambler?" She nodded. "Yeah, what do you know?"

"Well, turns out there is a big Poker game going on later tonight on this ship." She said taking another sip of her drink and then downing the rest. "One of your clients, I believe the one that we talked about the other day with a gambling problem, is interested in King. I'm here to collect on that. Apparently when King sends out invitations, they come with some sort of enchanted object that endows luck to the player."

"Ah, that makes sense, but I take it there is a catch." The man said.

"Oh yes. The object is enchanted or cursed depending on how you look at it. It brings the person who has it luck at the cost of their life." Dante watched as Roe looked at the bottom of her glass and then set it down with a look of disappointment. "Either way, I can at least nullify one of these objects before it gets into your client's hands."

"Please do. We can't have one of our best patrons turn up dead because he lost a game of poker." He said before stepping away. "Always a pleasure Miss Roe. See you tomorrow afternoon."

"You too, Mr. James." She said watching the other man go before turning her attention to Dante. "Come buy me a drink if you are going to keep following me around like a stalker." Dante heard her say and pushed off from the wall to sit next to her at the bar where the bartender waited.

"Give her what she wants, and I'll have top shelf." The bartender nodded and Roe showed him her empty glass.

"Same as last time." She said as Dante leaned and arm on the bar facing her and taking in her appearance again. "What?"

"Nothing, you just seem different." He told her with a smirk. "It's not a bad thing."

"No, it's not."

"Where have you been?" He asked her, wanting to catch up and figure out how different she really was. "I got a few post cards from you before, but they stopped coming a couple years ago so I just assumed you forgot about us."

"Us? I hope you mean you and Lady." She said suggesting that what he thought of was a pipe dream as usual.

"There is Trish too, but you haven't met her yet." Dante said and then thought about it knowing this would cause a misunderstanding.

"Who is Trish?" She had thoughts that went dangerous places and hoped it wasn't what she thought it was. If he and Lady got together and had a kid, she was going to be happy for them.

"She's a friend." He said as the bartender placed a glass of top shelf whiskey in front of him. "She was my partner until that didn't work out anymore." He took a sip and then sighed.

"Well, you never did have luck with women." Her included. Of course, it was her decision to leave in the first place so she couldn't really place the blame on him.

"I had luck with you." He said looking at her as though she were the only one for him.

"I wouldn't call what we were a romantic relationship Dante. We cared about each other a great deal since we were kids, but we both know that you didn't love me like that." She said before standing up frustrated with how he just assumed she would go back to him. He really didn't have any skill with women even though she really loved him then and now she wasn't so sure. "Besides, you seem to have all the ladies you want now."

"Roe, stop." He said grabbing her wrist. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah well, I am too." She said and he let her go with a defeated look on his face. "Goodbye Dante. Good luck tonight." She walked off with her drink in her hand and sat at a poker table. He never did give her chips back to her like he intended.

The next morning after the poker game was over and four bodies were being loaded up by the coroner as the ship docked, he could see Roe walking away from the scene with a new piece of jewelry around her neck. It was the necklace that Lucky Amanda wore during the game, the very same one that had been enchanted by the demon witch. She had somehow lifted it off the body it belonged too and was bringing it to her boss.

When she got close enough Dante went up to her and grabbed her by the arm before bringing her to a secluded place out of everyone's earshot. She squeaked as he did this and started to protest but then calmed down once she realized what he wanted.

"Nice necklace." He said standing close to her and she blushed as she realized he was looking down at her chest. The dress she was wearing did show off a bit of cleavage.

"I won it in a poker game." Roe told him as he backed her up against the wall. "Do you like it?" She wasn't sure what was going on in his head, but she was sure it had nothing to do with the necklace.

"Maybe." He told her towering over her as he looked down at her. Inside he wasn't sure how much more he could take. He should've said something seven years ago before she left, but he couldn't bring himself to do it then. "You know that is enchanted right?" He pointed to the pendant.

"Oh yes, I know. I heard all about it from Lady when I ran into her a little while ago." She looked up at him daring him to do something. "By the way, Patty is really cute."

"Cut the crap Roe. What are you doing here?"

"I told you before that I was working." Roe told him and he let out a deep breath before locking eyes with her. His ice blue with her grey. "I'm sure you overheard my conversation with my boss."

"Yeah, so what?" He challenged her and then the fight commenced. "Please tell me you aren't doing anything dangerous or illegal."

"It's not illegal and its very legit. I've been doing it for a while now." Dante ran a hand through his hair and looked over to where Morrison and Patty stood with Lady. Roe took this moment to get free of him by reaching up and giving him a kiss on the cheek. "I'll tell you everything later." She said walking away quickly and leaving him there with wide eyes and motionless.

It took him a moment to regain his composure, but when he did, Dante had many thoughts running through his head. Shaking his head, he walked back over to the others and remained quiet. He could tell that Patty was beyond tired as he probably broke a lot of rules having Patty there in the casino and even out all night. The girl was only ten years old and honestly, she was his responsibility for the time being.

"Come on Patty, let's go." He said walking away from the group.

"Hey Dante, who was that lady?" The blond girl said as she caught up to him and grabbed on to his arm. "She's really pretty."

"An old friend." Dante said looking down at Patty who seemed to be in awe of the woman he just spoke with. "Come on, I'll drop you off at the orphanage."

"If it's okay with you, I'll just sleep on the couch at your shop." Patty told him as they made it to his car.

"I think it's better if you go to the orphanage for now. You can come by tomorrow and do whatever." Despite how he appeared to always be irritated around the girl, he really considered her to be family at this point. "I need some sleep too." He honestly needed the time alone to figure some things out.

"Hey Dante?"

"What?" He said as she got into the passenger seat of the car.

"You aren't such a bad guy after all." She said and he almost chuckled at that statement when he got into the driver's seat. "I mean you can be dense sometimes, but you have a good heart."

"Does that mean I'm off the hook for all those ice-cream cones?" Dante started the car.

"Oh no, I still want those ice-cream cones, but I guess I can cut you some slack on the timeframe." Patty said with her index finger up in the air making her point clear and Dante just ruffled her hair for it. "Hey!"

"Put your seatbelt on so we can go." Safety first for the miniature humans that seemed to hang around him.

The drive back to Capulet was at least a couple hours, but during that time Patty had fallen asleep while Dante's mind was on Roe. He wondered where she had been all this time and what she did. She was still the same woman he knew, but she was more independent than when she left. She had shown up in his life as a kid and then when his mother died, he left and disappeared on her only for her to show up a few years after Temen-Ni-Gru. She was just a normal college girl then with a talent for witchcraft and old objects. She hadn't changed and she had gotten under his skin more times than he got under hers.

Of course, she was always right. Always. Then when it came time for her to finish school, she decided it was best to go and study abroad. When she left, they were best friends that had slowly formed a deep attachment to each other. When she left it left an empty place in his heart. What happened between them had left a deep canyon between them and full of regret. He did something to make her go away and he knew it. Now that she was back maybe he could make amends with her and start over because in all honesty he still had feelings for her.

That and she had to pay for teasing him earlier.


	2. Roe

Roe stared at the two little lines as she sat on the toilet in Dante's bathroom. He was out for the night and honestly that was probably a good thing as she was close to having a breakdown. All it took was one time and that one time wasn't a drunken one-night stand with her best friend, but more along the lines of a lot of sexual tension that had built up between them in a time of emotional stress.

When it happened, she was going through the rigorous time of finding a good job and dealing with college. It got the best of her and then there was Dante who couldn't make up his mind on whether he really loved her. She wasn't angry with him, but disappointed until he found her in a heap at his desk after a long day of job hunting and dealing with finals for that semester. She was under a lot of stress and when that happened, she became a very emotional person. Dante took advantage of that and it wasn't that she didn't want it, God yes, she did, but she was even more disappointed when he seemed to ignore what had happened the next day.

It was like he was ashamed of what he did.

Dante had wronged her, but she still cared deeply about him, even loved him. However, the object in her hand was a complication. Recently she was offered a chance to study abroad for her remaining year of college and honestly, she didn't know how that was going to happen now. This tiny little object with the two pink lines changed everything.

"Roe?" Lady's voice came from the other side of the door.

"Yeah I'm coming." She wiped the tears from her eyes and stood up to open the door. When Lady saw her, she couldn't hold back the tears anymore.

"Oh God." Lady wasn't a very lovey dove person, but Roe needed her at that moment, so she sucked up her pride and went into the bathroom and embraced her friend as she cried. "I'm sorry Roe. I'm so sorry." Lady knew the answer already and rubbed the crying woman's back as she held on to her.

Minutes later they sat on the couch in the shop after Roe had dried her tears. She still held the little object in her hands with the two pink lines and Lady could only feel sympathy for her friend. More so both of her friends as this was also Dante's problem too. She reached over and put a hand on top of Roe's, squeezing it in support and concern.

"I don't know what to do." The chestnut-haired woman said looking down at her hands and the little object. "I don't know how to tell him or if he will accept it. What's worse is that I still have to finish school and then the offer to study abroad." She clenched her fists as she felt more tears seeping into her eyes.

"I wouldn't worry about Dante. Just take care of yourself and do what you think is right." Lady said with empathy in her voice. "He doesn't have to know, and you don't have to stay here. I know you well enough to know that you will keep your baby and you will make it work, but I also know Dante well enough to know that he can't handle himself much less a child." The raven-haired woman said to her friend. It was the truth. As much as Roe loved Dante, Lady was right.

So, Roe kept the baby a secret from Dante. She got on the plane to go overseas a month later and then gave birth to her son a few months later in Redgrave City while attending University there. She would send post cards to Dante to let him know how she was doing, but never mentioned her son in them. He wouldn't know until she decided the time was right.

Now as she crept into her apartment dead tired and ready for a long night of sleep, she found the babysitter sleeping on the couch. Roe had not meant to stay out so late, but business called. James had asked to meet her at a local bar to pick up the pendant she had acquired at the casino. She had taken it to the local witchdoctor to have the enchantment nulled as soon as she returned to Capulet earlier that day.

She walked over to the teenage girl and gently shook her awake. The black-haired teen opened her brown eyes and looked up at Roe who gave her a smile. The teen yawned and sat up stretching as Roe walked over to the bar in her kitchen and grabbed the phone.

"I'm sorry for being out so late, I'm going to call your parents and tell them you will be sleeping over. I'll drop you off at school tomorrow morning on my way to the museum." The teen said nothing as Roe dialed the phone number and let the phone ring. "Hey, I was just calling to let you know Maggie is going to spend the night." She said over the receiver. "It's not bother, she is always welcome. She did her homework and everything and I'll drop her off at school in the morning." She looked over at Maggie who cringed at the mention of homework. "No, really, she is a huge help with Cade." Roe gave her a thumbs up. "Okay I'll tell her. You have a good night." She hung up the phone and smiled at the teen.

"Let me guess, they love me and told you to tell me have a good day at school tomorrow." Maggie said laying back down on the couch. "Oh, and Cade made something for you, but he told me not to tell you about it. So, this is me not telling you about it." The teen said pulling the blanket over herself again.

"Okay." Roe said as she walked out of the living room and down the hall to Cade's bedroom. She opened the door to find her son halfway hanging off his bed with his arm and leg dangling and his head facing the door. "Just like his father." She walked over to him and pushed his silver platinum hair out of the way and adjusted him to where he was sleeping comfortably. She made sure that his nightlight was still on and then gave him a kiss on his cheek before leaving his room.

The next morning, she woke up to Cade running into her room and hoping into bed with her all excited about something going on in school. He was babbling on and on with his bright blue eyes shining in excitement and she couldn't help but laugh at him.

"Okay, calm down and breath between your words."

"I said we are going to have the animal guys come today!" Oh right, she completely forgot about that. He had only reminded her seventy times a day the past two weeks. Basically, it was a few people from the zoo who went to school with a few animals to educate the kids on the importance of conservation. She did the same as she worked for a museum as well, only it was mostly with middle school and high school students.

"Honey, I completely forgot." She gave him a deadpan look and his jaw dropped open. "I'm a horrible mother." She put her head in her hands.

"It's okay Mom, I forgive you even if you are horrible at fake crying." He put a hand on her shoulder and patted it.

"Oh, you little rat, I love you so much." She grabbed him and gave him a big sloppy kiss on the cheek. He tried to rub it off, but she could only laugh. "That's it, just rub it in more. My love is strong."

"Okay Mom, that was disgusting." He groaned out as his mother got out of bed.

"Come on, let's get you and Maggie fed and to school."

Breakfast consisted of Lucky Charms, since both Cade and Maggie ate that on multiple occasions. After that the three of them loaded up into Roe's sedan and headed out. As soon as Cade was dropped off at his school, Roe was going in the direction of the museum. She had two jobs really. One was the work she did for the auction house and the other was her job as the antiquity's director at the History Museum in Capulet. She was the one that brought in new artifacts and exhibits for viewing.

Today however, was a paperwork day as most Friday's were. A new shipment of artifacts from Egypt was supposed to be arriving on Monday and set up by Wednesday to be opened to the public on Saturday. She had to go over the manifest and where everything was supposed to be going according to the planogram sent to her by the National Museum. The exhibit was on loan for two months so that gave everyone in Capulet time to see it.

When she walked into work, her heals clacked on the black marbled floor as she made her way to her office. Passing the guard, she gave him a nod with a smile as her assistant came up to her. He was a short young man who interned with her and boy was he good. He wore glasses and had dark brown hair.

"Good morning Joel." She said as he handed her a cup of tea just like she liked it. "Thanks."

"The manifest and the planograms came in this morning." She heard him say as she took a sip of her tea and went into her office. "They are sending some extra pieces on loan." Joel told her and she sat down in her chair.

"Okay, good to know. Can you call David at National and have him get in touch with me later about these extra pieces? I need to know what to do with them since they are on planogram." Roe said looking at the manifest and planogram in front of her as she sipped on her tea.

"Sure, Miss Roe."

"Thank you, Joel, you're the best!" She said putting down her tea and really looking at the paperwork in front of her.

She had moved back to Capulet with Cade right under Dante's nose over a year ago. It was by chance that she had run across him on the casino ship the night before and she had tried to play it off as though she really didn't care for him. However, her heart got the better of her and when she walked away from him the second time after kissing him on the cheek, she chastised herself for it. She still loved him.

It was probably because she had given birth to a miniature version of him and then that mini version of him had all his good qualities. It made her miss Dante that much more when she saw her son do something that reflected Dante's character. Cade was undoubtedly Dante's son and anyone who knew Dante would be able to tell.

"Miss Roe, there is a lady here to see you, she said she needed some information on something." Joel said poking his head into her office and driving her thoughts of Dante away and she cleared her throat before standing up.

"Okay, tell her I'll be right there." She smoothed down her white button up shirt and black skirt before leaving her office and shutting the door.

Walking out into the lobby she saw a tall blond standing in front of a painting of Sparda and his rebellion. She was dressed head to toe in black and wore a leather jacket with sunglasses on top of her head. She looked like a demon hunter and was possibly in search of some artifact.

"Can I help you with something?" Roe said as she walked up to the blonde who looked at her. Roe took a step back and gasped. In front of her was someone who looked like a clone of Eva and she had to take a guess that she was a demon as well. Roe composed herself and sighed. "I'm sorry, you just look like someone I used to know."

"It's fine. I'm here on a friend's advice. She said you could tell me a bit about a certain object that I happen to be looking for." The blond said with a smile.

"She is right, I can help. We better go into my office." Roe said leading the way. Once in her office she shut the door and motion for the woman to sit in the chair at the desk. "So, I take it you know Lady."

"More or less. I only met her recently and she told me about you being an expert in demonic artifacts." The woman said crossing her legs as Roe sat down in her own chair.

"Well, I can't say I'm an expert, but I do know a lot about them. What is it you are looking for?" Roe asked.

"It's a specific item that I've been tracking down for a friend. A Devil Arm really." The blond clasped her hands together. "It's a Japanese katana, blue scabbard and wrapped hilt."

"The Yamato. I know it well." Roe became very concerned at the thought of this woman looking for Vergil's sword. If she had her way, Yamato would stay where it was. She didn't know its location and that was probably a good thing. "However, I can say that its location is unknown to me." She said interlocking her fingers and resting her hands on her desk.

"That's too bad. It would be safe with my friend at least." The woman said and it clicked in Roe's head that this woman knew Dante.

"I have no doubt. I'm sorry I couldn't be of any more help than that." Roe said with a smile on her lips as the blond stood up to leave. "It was a pleasure to meet you..."

"You can call me Trish."

"So, you're Trish?" Roe said with her mind cleared now.

"Yes. Lady said I should meet you, so I came here. Still, she said if anyone knew where Yamato was you would know." She said.

"I really don't know but give me time. If it is somewhere in the human world, I have the resources to find it." And now that she thought about it, maybe it wasn't a bad thing to investigate Yamato's location. Last she heard of it was when Dante told her it went with Vergil to the Underworld. "I just hope it's not in the wrong hands."

"Me too. Anyway, it was nice to finally meet you so see you around." Trish said as she opened the door to Roe's office and walked out.

Roe herself let out a deep breath and leaned back in her chair before going back at the paperwork. There was so much to do before the day was over and she still had to leave at two to go get Cade from school. Speaking of, she hoped Trish didn't see all the pictures in her office. Cade was a dead ringer for Dante and if Trish knew she would probably tell Dante.

"Oh, my life just got a little more complicated."


	3. Mistakes Made

Dante opened his eyes to see Roe sleeping beside him. He remembered the moment that he had leaned forward and kissed her silly, picking her up by the thighs and bringing her upstairs to his room while she tangled her fingers in his hair. They had argued over the offer she had gotten to go study overseas and finish her degree there. He didn't want her to go and the way that he showed it was lack of interest and a bad attitude on his part. Now, he knew he had done something that she probably wouldn't forgive him for. It was a moment of weakness and he took advantage of it.

He had put her down on the bed and she began to take her clothes off without her lips leaving his. The whole time he was thinking to himself how wrong he was for doing this. Looking at her face in the morning light and seeing how beautiful she was only made him feel worse. He would never admit it to her, but his feelings went way deeper than friendship and he was sure she felt the same, but he was stubborn. He of all people preferred to keep romance at a distance despite how much he played at charming the ladies. He had more respect for women than he made it out he had. After all, his mother was a very classy and sophisticated woman herself.

She taught him how a woman should be treated, and he had failed her by taking advantage of Roe in the state she was in. More so, he failed himself and he was ashamed of it. He wouldn't admit it to anyone and certainly not to Roe because that was his problem to deal with, only he didn't want to deal with it. He reached over and dragged his knuckles lightly over Roe's cheek as she slept before leaning over and kissing her on the cheek in an apologetic way before getting up and dressing himself.

If there was ever one thing he regretted in his life, it was when he left her sleeping in his bed that morning and not talking through things with her. Instead here he sat regretting everything including avoiding her for weeks before she finally said enough was enough. Sure, they repaired the friendship, but it seemed the damage was done and irreversible considering the way she acted when she saw him at the casino.

What really confused him was how she kissed him on the cheek before walking away from him for the second time. At first, he thought it was just a way to distract him and allow time for her to get away, but after thinking about it, it held more meaning. She had openly scorned him when she first saw him, then the second time she seemed to be okay with him and almost challenging him to do something. It was downright confusing, and it felt like a game.

"What has you all mopey today?" Lady said as she walked into the shop with Patty right behind her.

"Maybe he lost another bet with someone." He heard Patty whisper to Lady.

"Nah, this is a lost puppy mope, not a lost bet mope." Lady told her as she went to the desk and slammed her hands down making a loud noise that made Patty jump.

"Shit. What do you want Lady?" He said with his eyes snapping to her. "I was enjoying the silence."

"Get real. You have been this way since the poker game, and I know it has everything to do with Roe." Lady said crossing her arms over her chest and sitting on the desk. "You should go talk to her again. Maybe you can get a little closure and be mopey about something else other than the amount of money you owe me." He glared at her and growled.

"Wait what did you do to that lady?" Patty asked coming up to stand beside the desk with her hands fisted.

"He messed up years ago. Did something he shouldn't have done and really hurt her." He didn't need Lady to remind him of what he did, so he stood up silently and grabbed his coat before leaving the shop. It was bad enough he had made a huge mistake and regretted it, but he didn't need Lady and Patty telling him reminding him in the way they did.

As he walked down the streets of Capulet, he thought of all the things he had done wrong instead of what little he had done right. His shop was a mess most times because he was so lost and while the thrill of battle would jumpstart his otherwise dead soul, he still had a problem. That problem was his inability to cope with his wrongs. On the inside he was disgusted by himself because of his blood and he'd be damned if he would ever be able to finally accept it.

As a child he had admired and adored his father until Sparda died, then he became angry and self-loathing when his mother was killed. He was disgusted by the demon blood that ran through his veins and equally so, the fact that he was tied to a demon like Sparda. It was why he hated demons. Granted some demons were able to live in the human world in peace and Dante saw that they were not interested in harming anyone. He let them be if they were not causing problems.

Humans on the other hand, could be just as disgusting as demons. Rapists, pedophiles, drug addicts, and just over all violent human beings were everywhere these days and religion blamed it all on demons. It wasn't all demons; humans had the power of choice and they choose to be bad people because it feels good. Just like sex can make a person feel good.

No, he was just as disgusted with humans as he was demons sometimes and he was both. He was particularly disgusted with humans who sought to become demons and that right there was why he was a demon hunter. It was a system of checks and balances and he kept it in check.

"Hey watch it!" Someone shouted as someone bumped into him and fell on the sidewalk with a grunt. He looked down to see a teenage girl sitting there with all kinds of punk rock clothing on. She had dark hair and brown eyes.

"What are you doing?" He asked her as he held out a hand and her eyes gave off a curious glance as she grabbed it.

"Sorry, but I don't have to tell you anything." She said as he lifted her to her feet. She had to have been at least sixteen years old and had just gotten out of school for the day.

"Huh...I guess your parents taught you well." Dante told her as she dusted herself off and started to walk away.

"Yeah they did. Sorry but I'm already late to pick up the kid so if you don't mind, I don't think I want to ever run into you again." She said before running off in the direction she was originally headed. Dante looked after her and shook his head.

"Kids these days."

After a while of walking around he noticed the fog rolling in and the eerie feel of the streets he walked down. It was a no brainer for him that this was the perfect conditions for demonic activity. He was sure there was going to be trouble in this neighborhood tonight and decided it was best he stick around. As he walked down the street, he passed the entrance to an alleyway only for the corpse of a dead demon to fall to the ground.

"Hmm." Dante didn't even flinch when a white demon flew at him with two swords and pinning him against the wall. "Well, this is interesting." He said with no real emotion on his face as he stared into the demon's eyes.

"So, you are Dante." The white demon said as he had put pressure on both sides of Dante's neck with his swords. "You don't seem like a challenge." To which Dante didn't say anything but simply grinned.

"I don't know who you are you bastard, but I was enjoying a nice long walk until you came along." Dante couldn't get to Ebony or Ivory before a familiar sound echoed through the streets. It was the sound of Kalina Ann firing and this gave him the opportunity to escape the demon's grasp as the rocket made impact. "Good grief." He said running a hand through his hair as Lady walked up to him. "And they call me destructive." He said looking at the mess of brick and mortar that was left behind from the blast.

"I came just in time, didn't I?" She said putting Kalina Ann over her shoulder and shrugging.

"Yeah, sure, but you didn't come here to save little old me, now did you?" He asked her with a smirk on his face suggesting that she did in fact follow him because he was in danger. Not that he couldn't handle himself.

"You've got the wrong idea Pal. I just happened to get a call from a concerned individual saying there had been some strange characters popping up at the museum downtown." This seemed to catch his attention. "I told this individual that I would check it out and here we are. A white demon looking for anything to do with Sparda." She said as he began walking in the direction of the shop. Lady stayed at his side while explaining the details.

"Of course, they can't just be happy that my old man is dead, so they want me dead too. Sounds about right." He put his hands in his pockets as he headed home.

"Well, it's probably a good thing you are the main target that way no one else can get hurt." Except she was partially wrong. Just by being with him she was in danger if this demon was walking about. "Anyway, I'm going to the Museum tomorrow to meet with her. You are welcome to come along." There was that tone of voice she used when she was trying to manipulate him into doing something he didn't want to do. She did it with everyone and it usually worked.

"Sorry, but I told Patty I would take her to get ice-cream tomorrow." He said walking ahead and she stopped causing him to stop and look back at her.

"You know Dante, despite what you say about her, you really do care about Patty a lot. Almost like she is your little sister." Lady was spot on as usual and he blinked really taking it in that besides Roe, this woman was his best friend.

"Of course, I do. She is innocent." Dante said as he turned away and continued walking.

Lady sighed and then smiled at his retreating back before following him. Eventually she would have to tell him that Roe lived in Capulet City right under his nose and eventually he would find out about his son being there too, but right now she decided to leave it as it was. However, she knew that when it came to that time, he would be angry with both her and Roe. It would be either a bloodbath of emotions or an all-out pity party on Dante's end. Either way, it was coming.

The good thing was that Dante had seemed to mature a little in the years that Roe had been gone and while she had seen him soften to the idea of having Patty around, a six-year-old would blow his mind. As much as she wanted to see him have a hysterical meltdown over a six-year-old boy, she really felt sorry for Roe. The woman had become Lady's best friend and she had even snuck off to Redgrave to see Roe without Dante knowing a thing when Cade had been born.

The question now was would Dante be a good father?

Roe had expressed those concerns many times over the last seven years with her and Lady couldn't give her a factual answer. The reason for this was because of Dante's inward depression and outward self-destructiveness that had developed after Roe left. If Lady didn't know any better, Dante regretted everything he had done that night and if Roe knew that she would not want to talk to him simply because it would mean that he did not have an interest in meeting his son. No, it was probably best that he and Roe have a conversation with each other.

Because he was under the impression that he had made a grave mistake even though they were both consenting adult in the time of Cade's conception.

"Hey Dante, I do think you should come to the museum with me tomorrow. If not then, but after we take care of the demon." Lady said as he walked on in front of her. She always had a hard time keeping up with him because of his long legs.

"Fine." Was all he said as he walked off without her.


	4. Alan's Tear

Rain came down from the sky like cats and dogs as Roe ran down the streets with her books in her arms. She had just started up her first semester of college three weeks ago and she was already running late for class. The front that came through earlier had blown some lines down across Capulet before dumping a ton of rain down. This meant that her alarm didn't go off when it was supposed too. Thank goodness for the digital watch that went off fifteen minutes later just in case.

"Oh shit!" She said looking at her watch. She was twenty minutes late now and she had missed the bus completely so there was no way she would ever make it to class at all. She stopped and looked around for some sort of shelter to stand under while she came to grips with not being able to attend class.

There just a few feet away was a diner.

Roe didn't say anything as she walked up to the door and opened it being greeted by 'Welcome to Ferdi's' from the waitress that floated across the floor on roller-skates. It was an old-fashioned diner she hadn't encountered before with its 50's them and the jukebox sitting in the corner playing some old tune.

"Hey there Doll, looks like you could use a seat." The waitress came up to her and said. "And a dry towel." The golden-brown eyes of the girl glanced over Roe's wet figure. She had literally just thrown on whatever she could find out of her dresser which happened to be a hoodie and a pair of flannel pjs. She hadn't even bothered to put her hair up or brush it.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I just...well, it's been a terrible morning so far." Roe said with a blush.

"No worries. Why don't you go have a seat in one of the booths and I'll get you a towel."? The waitress said. "By the way, my name is Sonja." She winked before skating away.

Roe didn't say anything as she went to sit in a booth beside the mirror that ran the length of the wall across the bar. She hadn't paid attention to her soaked socks and shoes or the little puddles of water she was leaving behind on the checkered floor when she picked the booth, she was going to sit in. When she sat down, she set her ruined books aside on the cushion and then took a moment to examine her current state.

It was needless to say; she was very uncomfortable in her wet clothes.

"Hey Sonja, I'm still waiting on that pizza!"

"Geeze, he is probably the most demanding customer we have. Here you go, Honey. Fredi said not to worry about the floor, he'll get it in a moment." Sonja said as she handed Roe a nice dry towel. "I'll be right there Dante!" Roe's eyes widened at the name and watched as Sonja rolled over to another booth in the corner where a white-haired man sat.

He was sitting there in a tight black t-shirt and had those ugly grey green bike pants on. She never liked them even when she was dating the one guy she had dated in high school. Eric was his name and he loved fast cars and motorcycles. That was pretty much all he was. She dumped him after a couple months when he started spending more time racing and less time in school. Last she heard he was in jail for vehicular homicide after hitting a man on a motorcycle with his mustang.

The man sitting no less than thirty feet from her was a different story as the last time she had seen him was when he was eight and she was seven. She didn't know if she should go over there and introduce herself to him again or if she should just stay where she was. It was a difficult decision and thinking on it now several years later, what would have happened if she hadn't have gone over there.

Well, for one, she wouldn't have Cade.

Cade who was the bright light in her life and the sweetest little boy anyone could ever know. The one that she spent hours in pain trying to bring him into the world. She didn't regret it, but often when she was alone, she thought on the what if's and the why nots. It was a habit she had formed when she had time to herself.

As Roe sat in the little dive bar that peaceful demons were known to frequent, she pondered on the what if's again while sipping on a glass of wine. She was waiting on Mr. James to show up with a new job for her. It was something about a pendant this time and she could feel the electricity in the air as a storm was coming in. This was perfect.

"Well now, what is a dame like you doing in a place like this?" A rusty sounding voice said from a few stools down the bar. "Lamenting about the past perhaps?" She could feel his eyes roaming her body. The clothes she wore were tight fitting showing off every bit of her figure with black leather pants and a white blouse tucked into them. She often wore little crystals around her wrists and neck that would protect her from most demonic powers, and they were always bound by leather cord.

"Maybe so." She paid him no attention as he came to sit closer to her. Taking another sip of her wine she gave him a glance.

He was an odd fellow. Missing teeth and cross eyed with a short stature and he were obviously a low-level demon because of the ripe stench he gave off as far as aura went. She had to say she was a little creeped out, so she kept on guard.

"If you don't mind me saying, you don't look like a demon. More like a human lady who is hiding from someone?" He said in observation and she didn't pay attention. "I wonder what happened to make you run away. A love affair gone wrong. An illegitimate child perhaps?" She almost choked and set her glass down. "Oh, now that is interesting."

"Listen you, I don't know who you are or where you came... huh?" She turned in his direction only to see nobody there. It was as if she had been talking to a ghost. She must have looked like she was crazy when she stood up to look around at the different booths and around the bar.

"There you are." Mr. James' voice sounded through the little bar. She was the only one there besides the barkeep and the creepy demon. "Are you okay?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, I'm fine. Just thought I saw a ghost." The chestnut-haired woman said sitting back down at the bar as the man showed some concern. "So, what do you have for me?" Roe asked as he sat down next to her and pulled out a yellow envelope and opened it up.

"We have an anonymous client that would like for you to track this down for him." He said pulling out a picture of an antique pendant with a blue stone in the center. She knew that pendant from her time studying the Alchemist's journals in the past. "I take it by the look on your face you are familiar with this item."

"Yes. I am." She looked at the photo closely and saw that it was exactly how the journal described it. "This is Alan's Tear."

"Is it really?" Mr. James asked in a way that would get Roe to elaborate on the object.

"Yes." She took a deep breath. "There was a powerful alchemist a long time ago named Alan Lowell. He was intent on becoming a demon, so he sought to enslave and defeat them one after the other. While that was an effective way to do it, there was one demon he could not enslave. Doing this he upset the balance and had to ultimately seal the demon." She told him as she looked at the wineglass to her left. ", Alan Lowell did not survive. Or his human soul didn't. He ended up sealing away the demon on the other side with barriers that require artifacts from the remains of demons."

"Do you know which ones?" She nodded.

"I do. It was all in his journal and there are very few copies." Roe told her companion as she took a sip of wine and then pulled the picture to her even more. "I have one of the copies, but the original journal is locked away in a vault that belongs to a very powerful man."

"That's very sad. Do we know him?" She looked up at Mr. James with an eyebrow raised.

"We don't. Unfortunately." The man in question was a very powerful holy figure in some country far away. "Though I'm sure if we keep acquiring objects like this one to sell at auctions, we may get to know him." She pushed the photos to Mr. James.

"I'll track this down and get it for you. It may take a while, but I can certainly do it."

"Our client gave you two weeks do you think you can at least handle that?" Roe's eyes widened at the deadline she was given, and she had to do everything she could not to have an unfortunate outburst in the middle of a mostly empty bar. It was a weeknight after all. She sighed.

"I'll do my best. Although, it may be a good idea that if I should not meet the deadline, I should be at least compensated for the work that I do." Rent wasn't cheap and Cade had a school play coming up. It was her duty as a mother, not the best mom in the world, to outperform the other moms.

"Of course, I will pass that on to the client."

"I'll call you when I find it." She said before the man got up and left. "If I ever find it." Roe slumped over on the bar and put her head on top of her arms. She stayed there for a while before the sound of the door opening caused her to bury her head into the circle her arms made on the bar. She felt someone sit next to her where Mr. James had sat earlier.

"Long day?" That voice made her want to scream in frustration. She did not need this right now.

"If you are coming to tell me to go talk to him you are out of your mind." Roe said as she looked up at Lady who just had to meddle all the time. The woman who Roe considered a sister leaned against the bar and smirked.

"Nah, not tonight. It's about to rain and some demon decided to pick a fight with him." Lady said as the barkeep came up to her. "I'll take a shot of tequila."

"What demon is it this time?"

"Some demon that was Sparda's apprentice. Actually, now that I think about it there were two of them." Lady said.

"Modeus and Baul." Roe said as she knew exactly who the two demons were, and she groaned because Modeus was a key to Alan Lowell barrier. "This cannot be happening." She stood up and grabbed Lady by the arm dragging the woman out of the bar as the rain began to come down.

"Roe! Wait a minute I didn't get my shot!" Lady yelled out as Roe pulled her into the rain. "And now I am wet. You know you aren't being a good friend right now."

"You'll get over it. Come on." The chestnut-haired woman said running off into the dark. "We've got to get to Dante before he does something stupid."

"You do know this is Dante we are talking about?" Lady said rhetorically as she ran after Roe. "He doesn't care if it's stupid, someone gave him a challenge and now he has to do it."

"Stupid man." Roe growled out as they ran through the streets to Devil May Cry. She can remember a time running through the rain to see him after he had left her at the diner that time.

Upon reaching Devil May Cry she ran into the doors soaking wet to find the place empty. He was already gone, and it was a good chance that he had already killed Modeus and his brother. There was so much bad blood between the brothers and Sparda because Sparda had left them in the demon world to fight off foe after foe. It was only a matter of time before they would find their way to the Human world to challenge Sparda's heir. This left a bad taste in Roe's mouth as now Sparda had a new heir, one that she herself gave birth too. How many demons would come after her son in the future?

"I thought I'd never catch up." Lady said coming into the shop and panting as she dripped water onto the wood floors of the shop. Roe didn't turn to look at her and went to Dante's desk instead.

"It hasn't changed." She said dragging her fingers across the mahogany desk that had been beat up by Dante's boots. The picture of Eva still sat in the same place it always had along with the Jukebox in the corner next to the drum set. "He hasn't changed." She said seeing the numerous magazines with women in swimsuits still littered all over the desk and this upset her deeply.

"Roe, don't do it." Lady said shaking her head and giving her friend an empathetic look. "Don't run away again."

"I don't think you need to be telling me what to do, Lady. I make my own decisions and honestly, you shouldn't meddle in my affairs." Roe said to Lady with a harsh tone in her voice that stunned the raven-haired woman before the mother of Dante's son stomped out of Devil May Cry and into the rain.

Roe let the rain mix with her silent tears as she made her way home. This inner conflict with herself was getting worse by the day and she just wanted it to go away. To push it aside and just forget about Dante was getting increasingly difficult to do. Even though she had thought about him over the years and saw him within Cade, she had hoped he had changed in the time she had been gone. To see all the things in the shop that hadn't changed meant that he hadn't as well, and it was disappointing.

It was so disappointing.

Walking into her apartment she once again saw Maggie on the couch watching reruns of her favorite shows. The teen greeted her with a smile and then turned her attention back to her show as Roe walked past her soaking wet going into the bathroom.

Several minutes later she emerged from the bathroom wrapped in a towel and walked to her room at the end of the hall quietly. She had not expected to see her son curled up on her bed sleeping with his stuffed animal. It was a bat that he affectionately called Reuben and he slept with it every night ever since he was a baby. She had no idea where the name came from, but it fit the little stuffed bat.

She quickly dressed into a pair of shorts and a t-shirt before getting into her bed and making sure Cade was covered up snugly before smoothing out his silky platinum locks and giving him a kiss on the cheek before getting to sleep herself.

"Mommy?"

"Yes, Baby?" She answered him as he opened his eyes in the darkness. She could feel his hand reaching for her in the dark and she grabbed him and brought him closer to her. "What is it?"

"I had a dream that you were taken away and I couldn't find you, so I sneaked in here while Maggie was watching her tv shows." He said apologetically.

"You sneaked in here?" Roe said making fun of the word he used. Instead of using snuck, he resorted to using sneaked only because he hadn't gotten to that part of school yet. He was only in first grade.

"Yep. Just like a ninja." He said sleepily and she held him closer. "Promise you won't go away?"

"Baby, you know I have to leave sometimes for work, right?" She said as her eyes started to water at the pleading in his voice.

"No, not for work. Forever." The six-year old's words shook her to the core, and she knew she couldn't make that promise to him. She was human and he was the son of a half demon whose lifespan would probably last longer than hers as far as she knew. She would die eventually and her work for the auction house, while not overly dangerous most times, there were times where she did get into sticky situations. "I don't want you to go because then I will be all alone."

"Cade, no matter what, you won't be alone." Roe told her son as she felt his tears land on her chest. His tears were what made her realize that she would have to eventually talk to Dante. It didn't have to be tomorrow or the next week, but she would have to talk to him. If something were to happen to her, Dante was Cade's only relative still alive. Dante was Cade's father and she would have to do it for him. "I promise." She held her son closer as they both shed some tears before falling asleep.


	5. Rain

Dante watched as the rain poured down outside the diner while waiting on that pizza he ordered twenty minutes ago. The grey sky outside was a perfect way to explain his mood now as it was only a few months after Vergil decided to stay in the Underworld. Despite what everyone thought of him and his relationship with his brother, he did love Vergil. They did share a room for eight years and nine months. In the end they were more like rivals than brothers or perhaps that's what brothers were to begin with. Either way, it still hurt. Love thy enemy had a new meaning to Dante.

His attention turned when he saw a girl in a grey hoodie and flannel pjs running in the rain with books over her head. He almost scoffed at the scene because she was one of those college brats that literally dressed in anything to go to class. He was lucky because he didn't have to go to college or rather, he chose not to. Instead he decided to open a demon hunting business with the tuition money his mother had hidden away for her sons. Too bad Vergil didn't touch it.

When he heard the door open, he knew she had come in and when Sonja's roller skates echoed across the diner to meet the girl, he almost looked to see what was going on. Instead he listened quietly as the waitress told the girl to sit at any booth she liked. He really hoped she didn't decide to come his way. Usually girls tried to flirt with him, and he really didn't mind that, but today he was not in the mood.

"Hey Sonja! I'm still waiting on that pizza!" He shouted across the diner and he heard Fredi grunt from where he stood at the bar cleaning glasses. "What? It's been twenty minutes." He looked at Fredi with a half glare.

"Sorry about that Dante, I'll go check on it." Sonja said rolling by him with an apologetic look as her long hair swung back and forth. He turned his attention back outside until he felt someone enter his personal space.

"Dante? Is that you?" It was the girl that he saw running in the rain and when he turned to look up at her he couldn't quite place where he knew her from. She was familiar even though her hair was wet and sticking to the side of her face.

"Do I know you?" He asked her as she looked down at him with recognition in her grey eyes. He didn't know many red heads with grey eyes like hers.

"I guess you wouldn't recognize me, I kind of grew up." She blushed and motioned to herself. "I'm sure it's been what? Eleven years since we last met?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." He swore he had seen her before, but he was just going to play dumb until she stopped making him guess.

"Oh, come on you jerk, I know you're just making me tell you instead of guessing. I swear you haven't changed a bit." She crossed her arms and sat down across from him with a towel across her shoulders. "Geeze it's as if you don't know that I know you."

"I don't know you...or really I don't remember you?" He sighed. "I remember this girl that I used to play with all the time before my mother died. She had chestnut red hair and grey eyes. She was really annoying sometimes too, but she was still pretty cool." He shrugged suggesting that he had no clue. "Her name was Rose...Rolene...Ro something."

"Rowena." She said with a deadpan face.

"Yep, that's the one." He said leaning back with a smirk on his face. "She was a snotty little brat that always got stuck in trees or fell out of them. I always had to save her."

"Okay you can stop. I'm right here you know." She said with an irritated tone in her voice.

"What are you doing here, Roe?" Dante asked her as Sonja rolled up with the pizza he had ordered. She didn't say anything and just floated away as if she weren't disturbing a moment between two old friends.

"Missing class." She said with a blank look on her face.

"No, I mean in Capulet." He said picking off a couple of olives that he didn't care for.

"Oh, I am going to the university here." She blinked and then livened up a little. "I didn't know you lived in Capulet."

"I do. I opened up my own shop here and hunt demons." He said and thought about being nice. "Want a slice?" She shook her head.

"Thanks, but it's too early for pizza." Then she realized that Dante could eat pizza for days. "Thank you though."

"Hey, it's no sweat. More for me anyway." He said picking up a slice of pizza and taking a bite.

"You haven't changed a bit." She told him as she put a smile on her face. Her grey eyes radiating with that admiration for him.

According to her, he hadn't, but over the years he was sure he had. Even now after she had suddenly appeared back in his life out of the blue for the second time, she probably still thought he hadn't changed. Maybe he hadn't, but he was sure he had learned a lot since she had left for overseas.

The rain had poured around him like it did that day in the diner all those years ago and honestly the melancholy that came with it just numbed those emotions. Even as it washed away all the blood from his fight with his father's so-called apprentices, he still didn't care. He opened the door to Devil May Cry and immediately shed his red coat on the floor not even bothering to pick it up. Patty would probably have a fit when she saw it, but he really didn't care. He spotted Lady sitting at his desk with her hands on her chin and a look on her face he had only seen a few times. She rarely let her emotions get the better of her, but she sat there pondering something.

He didn't really care because he was just too exhausted to do so.

"Look what the cat dragged in." She said with a bored tone.

"Shut up." He said flopping down on the couch face first and groaning once he relaxed. He was too tired to go up to bed.

"You really did bring the fight to those guys."

"Like I said, when someone comes looking for a fight, I give it to them." Dante said turning his head to the side and looking at his friend who seemed to be aloof herself. "What's eating you?"

"Roe." Lady said with a sad tone. "She was here earlier." He didn't say anything as he thought about her again.

"What did she want?"

"She wanted to make sure you didn't kill those demons, but it was too late." Dante grunted and then turned himself over onto his back before Lady sighed and continued. "I have a confession to make."

"Yeah?" He said closing his eyes.

"She's been living in Capulet for a year now." He stopped breathing and cracked an eye open looking towards Lady with contempt.

"Get out."

"Dante, she didn't want me to tell you anything." She tried defending herself by telling him this, but he was not in the mood. There were rare occasions when he did get angry, this was one of them and Lady knew that this was only the beginning.

"I don't care. Just go." He needed to be alone and she didn't say anything as she stood up from the desk defeated and left him to his emotions.

She had screwed up with both of her dearest friends.

Dante couldn't help but to stew in his anger. He felt betrayed and honestly just burnt out from all of this. He had been stewing on his past mistakes for years now and while he had tried to talk to her at the casino she had just walked away. Then there was the kiss on the cheek she gave him before walking away again. He felt like she was avoiding him but at the same time wanting something from him. It drove him crazy trying to figure it out.

Here he was thinking on how many times he could've talked to her in the last year and Lady knew. What really blew his mind was that apparently Roe knew exactly where he was all this time but didn't bother to come see him. Did she really care about him at all anymore? What was he thinking? He was the one that made the mistakes.

"Shit." He said out loud.

It was a mess and not one Patty could clean up. He would have to do it himself, eventually. Right now, he didn't want to do anything as he felt he was in that dreaded void of circumstance where no matter what he did, it would cost him. Maybe he was being selfish or maybe he just didn't want to deal with it, but he still had to deal with it. He needed closure. Did Roe hate him for what he did? Or did she still see him as her best friend?

He remembered her crying when she left. Crying and the embrace she gave him before she left on the plane. Why did she cry? All these questions and no clear answer just confusion and loss. Laying there feeling sorry for himself he finally let himself fall asleep.

"That Dante I swear!" Patty's voice woke him up but not enough to open his eyes. He heard a plastic bag filled with groceries hitting the top of his desk after she stomped over to it before stomping back to where his coat was on the floor. "Get up and clean this up, that guy is supposed to be coming for a strawberry sundae."

"He isn't coming." He said cracking an eye open to see what she was doing.

"Why not?" She gave him a confused look and tilted her head like a dog almost. It amazed him how kids could be like pets sometimes.

"He had a promise to keep from long ago." He didn't say any more before Patty came to sit down on the smaller couch beside that one.

"Oh, I had hoped he would've come, but that's okay. More for us." Her upbeat attitude about everything was something he loved about the little girl. Dante had considered her a ray of light in his otherwise gloomy world so instead of just lying there listening to the squeak of the ceiling fan, he sat up and gave her a small smile.

"You are something else, Patty." Dante said as he leaned forward and patted her on the head. She gave him a lost look before taking what he said as a compliment and perked up a bit with a smile.

"I guess that is probably the nicest thing you will ever say to me." The blond child stood up and grabbed the bag of strawberries, whipped cream, and ice cream off the desk and came to sit back down. "I'll take what I can get."

"You should." He said digging into the bag for the container full of ripe red strawberries that made his mouth water. "How much did you pay for these?" The berries were the best-looking ones he had ever seen and the only place he knew that you could get them was at the specialty market down by the Museum.

"Enough. I actually had to take the bus to go get them." She said taking out the whipped cream and opening it up before squirting some in her hand. Dante took it from her and put a finger up before she could protest.

"That's not how you do it." He said before tilting his head back and squirting the cream in his mouth and swallowing. "That's how you eat whipped cream."

"No, the real way to do it is with it on top of ice cream with a spoon you heathen." She crossed her arms and Dante almost wanted to laugh at her expression before handing the bottle back to her. "Anyway, when I went to the market, I noticed there was a new exhibit at the Museum so I thought we could go there and check it out later."

"I don't like museums, but you are welcome to go."

"Yeah I bet. You'll lend me the car and I'll have to drive myself when I can't drive." She glared at Dante who gave her a flat faced stare. "I'm only ten."

"Perfect time to learn." Her jaw dropped.

"Are you kidding me! I can't even see over the dashboard!" She yelled standing up with her fists clenched at her sides. Dante didn't even have to worry about her pint-sized temper tantrum, he could handle it. "This is why you shouldn't have kids." He couldn't agree more to that fact. "You are exactly the type of guy who would throw his kids in a pool and let them sink or swim."

"I'm not that cruel." No, in that situation he would probably do better than his father and jump in the water if his kids started to drown. Not to say his father was cruel, he just didn't know any better. "What does it matter anyway? I don't want kids." He leaned back and put his hands behind his head.

"That's probably a good thing." Patty said sitting back down again and sighing. "You aren't a bad guy Dante, but you just don't all your ducks in a row."

"Nope, but at least they are in the same pond."

"That's a lame joke." Patty said. "Anyway, I think I'm going to go. I really want to go to the museum and see that new exhibit."

"You have fun, Patty. I'll be here when you get back." Dante watched as the girl picked up all the strawberries and ice cream to put them away in the freezer Dante had in the little kitchenette.

"Bye Dante." She said as she ran out the door.

Dante didn't answer her back and just laid back down on the couch as if his nap had never been interrupted. Patty's words about his hypothetical and non-existent children brought up another surprising thought. What kind of father would he really be if he ever did have children? The only person he could ever imagine having a life with was avoiding him and confusing him at the same time, so it didn't look good. So, children were not in his future at all.

Then it dawned on him.

What if Roe really left because she was pregnant?

Dante sat up faster than he could blink, and his heart pounded in his chest like a heard of elephants. He had to calm down and think about this for a moment. It was possible. They did have unprotected sex and what he could remember from sex ed in high school is that it doesn't take but one time to get a girl pregnant. Which was why he didn't have sexual relations with too many women. He was an idiot.

He ran a hand through his hair and sighed letting all that go through his mind and then letting it sit for a moment. He didn't know how to really process that thought and what was worse, Lady popped up in his mind. Lady who was also Roe's best friend and the one who had kept the secret of Roe being in Capulet over a year. Lady who was also his other best friend who also was trying to meddle in their affairs.

Lady who probably knew more than she let on.

Standing up he went over to the phone and picked up the receiver before dialing a number and waited for the person he dialed to pick up on the other end.

"We need to talk." He said and the person on the other side sighed. "Now." The tone in his voice was urgent.

"I'll be there in a few." The person on the other side hung up and Dante set the phone down.

Nearly twenty minutes later he and Lady sat across from each other. Dante sat on the couch and Lady sat in the chair. He had his hands clasped together and his elbows resting on his knees with a serious look on his face.

"What else aren't you telling me?" He said looking at Lady.

"I don't know if I should tell you or let Roe tell you." By that answer alone she was admitting that she knew more than he thought she did, but she was in a hard place. He understood. She didn't want to betray Roe and she also didn't want to betray him either. "All I know is that you really need to talk to her. I've been trying to convince her that she needs to talk to you, but she won't do it."

"Fine, I'll talk to her." He said pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration and Lady could only hope that he didn't explode. "One more thing. If I'm right about this and I hope I'm not, you have to answer honestly." He was serious about this and he guessed if he had figured it out, no one's trust was being betrayed here.

"What is it?" She hoped it was something minor and not what she thought it would be.

"Patty brought something up this afternoon that got me thinking and I don't know why I hadn't thought of it before, but after what you told me today it makes sense." Lady was almost shaking in her boots at the anticipation of what he was getting at. "Roe didn't leave because of some University overseas, did she?"

"That was part of the reason." Lady said. That was fact and she wasn't going to be a liar even though she held Roe's secret well.

"She left because she was pregnant, didn't she?" Dante could tell by the way that Lady stiffened up and her eyes slightly widened that he was right. He rubbed his hand over his face in denial and then the anger inside him flared up. He was usually cool and calm, but this was big. "I thought so."

"Dante?"

"I think it's best that you leave." He told her for the second time in under twenty-four hours and she did before all hell broke loose.


	6. Cade

Patty stepped off the bus in her casual clothes consisting of a simple top with blue jeans. In front of her was the Capulet City Natural History Museum in all its classical Greek and Roman glory. She had often wanted to go to this place but never could due to her status as an orphan. However, now that Dante sort of acted as her guardian, she could get out of the orphanage most days. Though he would probably get in trouble for letting her go by herself.

She walked up the steps of the grey building and opened the glass doors to the lobby. Inside there were various people milling about with brochures in their hands looking at the various objects on them. Reaching into her purse, Patty pulled out a ten-dollar bill and walked up to the reception desk to pay for her visit.

"Children ten and under are free, Dear." The nice lady said as she handed the bill back to Patty.

"Would you accept this as a donation then?" The blond girl said with a huge smile on her face.

"Oh of course! Thank you for your generosity." The lady said taking the bill back from Patty and then handing her a booklet with information on the exhibits and a pass for the whole museum. "If you are interested Miss Aiden will be giving a presentation in the Cursed Artifacts exhibit later. It's full of spooky tales about the past."

"That sounds right up my alley!" More like Dante's alley, but she hung around him too much and even had a run in with a cursed object herself. She walked away following the map on the back of the booklet. The new exhibit on Egypt sounded fascinating to her so she wanted to save that one for last.

Going through the doors to her right took her to the Minerals and Crystals exhibit. She had never seen so many shiny metals and crystals in her life. There was a giant pillar of Azure that had come from somewhere in the desert and if you listened to it close enough it gave off a distinct hum. It was so beautiful.

Moving on through the next set of doors, she found herself in another exhibit about dinosaurs. Fossils of dinosaurs like the T-Rex and the Pterodactyl were the star attractions for all the kids in the room. This was more a section for kids than anything. There were interactive games that had you matching dinosaurs to their fossils and a simulated fossil dig.

It was something she could appreciate being ten years old herself, but when she went to take her spot at the dig, she ran into some kid. He was about six or seven years old with white hair. Not platinum blond, but white. Like Dante's. Matter of fact, he looked like a miniature version of Dante. She just couldn't believe what she was seeing as the kid completely ignored her and went to sit in the spot she was going to take.

"Hey! That was rude." She put her hands on her hips and the boy looked up at her with confusion in his blue eyes.

"Sorry, I didn't know you were going to sit here." He said getting up and getting out of her way. Unlike Dante, this kid had some manners. "I can do this anytime I want."

"Huh?" Patty said in confusion.

"My Mom works here." He said with a smile as she sat down and grabbed a brush and began to pretend like she was at an actual fossil dig. "I get to pretend all the time when there is no one here."

"That's cool. I wish I could spend all day here." It was obvious that she was thoroughly enjoying her visit to the Museum.

"Why can't you?" The boy asked as he got on his knees next to her and started brushing away sand too.

"I can't come into town by myself too often." She said.

"Doesn't your mom take you to her work?" The boy asked innocently, and she took no offence to it. She only shook her head.

"I don't have any parents. My birth mom gave me up when I was born, and I don't know who my daddy is." Patty elaborated to the boy and he sighed.

"I don't know who my dad is either." He held out his hand. "I'm Cade."

"Patty." She took it. He sounded much older than he was and had better manners than most kids had these days.

"It's nice to meet you Patty." He said with a smile and went back to playing. Patty on the other hand was trying her best not to get caught up in this exhibit so she decided to move on to the next. Before she could stand up, Cade said something. "You want to see the coolest part of the museum?"

"Sure." She said without second thought and the boy got up before waving at her to follow him.

"You're going to like this. My mom spent a lot of time getting these things." He said as he led her through a set of doors and into a smaller hall filled with nothing but weapons. "They are crazy looking right?"

"Wow. Why aren't these on display publicly?" Patty said and Cade shrugged.

"I don't know."

"Some of these remind me of a friend. He collects weapons like these and sometimes they even speak." She referred to Agni and Rudra as the two swords were sitting above the bar at Devil May Cry. Occasionally they would say something, and Dante would yell at them to shut up. Most times it was entertaining.

"Really? That's so cool." Cade told her as he looked at all the weapons. Scythes, swords, claymores, pikes, spears, javelins, katanas, naginatas, Dous, and gins. Weapons from all over the world.

"Yeah, you should come see them one day."

"I think my mom would take me if I told her about it." He said before he heard someone calling his name. "Oh, come on, that's her." He grabbed Patty's hand and dragged her from the room before his mother could see them. "That was close."

"You strike me as a troublemaker." Patty said and the look on Cade's face was in between offended and proud of himself.

"Cade Michael Aiden!"

"Oh no." The boy cringed as his full name was called out by his mother. That was never a good sign. He looked up to see his mother coming towards them in the hallway outside of the room they just came from. "Yes mom?" He looked up at her with innocent eyes.

Patty couldn't believe her eyes. The woman that was standing in front of her was the same woman that she had seen with Dante at the casino a while back. Then she looked at Cade who was the spitting image of Dante and then she looked back at the woman. She connected the dots and almost said something but refrained. Cade was busy being reprimanded for going in places he wasn't supposed to go and of course bringing Patty into those areas too.

"But she is my friend mom." Up until this point his mother hadn't really gotten a good look at the ten-year-old girl and when she looked at Patty, she dropped the clipboard she had been holding. "Mom, this is Patty."

"I know who she is." The chestnut-haired woman didn't say anything more or even looked angry, but she seemed shocked more than anything. "Cade, why don't you show your friend the exhibits while I get ready for the presentation." She bent down and picked up the clip board before turning around and leaving the two children alone.

"That was weird." Cade said before turning to Patty with a grin on his face. "Let's go!" He grabbed her hand and drug her away while she tried to make sense of what just happened.

The boy was eager to show Patty the newest exhibit before his mother's presentation and before Patty had to leave. He pulled her into the Egyptian exhibit and then let her go. The look on her face when she saw all the artifacts told him that she did like all of it.

"We even got a mummy!" He said running over to the glass case that surrounded an intricately carved sarcophagus made from gold and lapis lazuli. She gasped at the beauty of it and then almost cringed at the decayed corpse inside. It was a well-preserved mummy at least. "Yeah, that's the only gross part."

"I've seen worse."

"Look at this." He moved over to another case where a bunch of manakins were dressed in ancient clothing. "Did you know that kids back in those days went around naked until they were seven years old?"

"Eww." Patty couldn't imagine going around naked all the time. "Really?"

"Yep."

"That's so gross." She said as she looked up at the women's clothing. It seemed that no one in those days cared about modesty because women often went around with their breasts barely covered if at all. "No sense of fashion whatsoever." Patty shook her head.

"Come on, there is more to see." Cade got excited and practically skipped over to the next thing dragging Patty along. Over the next hour they went through each exhibit one by one until it was time for the presentation that Cade's mother was giving.

"Your mom is really pretty." Patty told cade as they stood in the front of the group as Miss Aiden walked around the room.

"Yeah she is." Cade replied.

"Here we have the infamous Blood Ruby. It was said back in the early part of the 18th century a very wealthy nobleman had received the ruby as a gift from the King of Franca in thanks for his service. However, many say that the King did this in payment for the nobleman's wife. Upon hearing her husband trading her for a ruby, she killed herself by eating the stone itself." Miss Aiden gestured to the grape sized ruby in the display case. "The stone being cut as it was, shredded her insides and left her to die in agony for days. Since then, the stone has gone from owner to owner with mysterious happenings befalling the owners."

"What makes it safe now?" A woman asked.

"It currently sits without an owner." Miss Aiden said before moving to the next object. Patty's eyes went wide when she saw it. It was a beautiful mirror that had a very intricately carved frame around it. It must have been ten feet tall and three feet wide. "This here is the famous Persephone Mirror. There are many myths surrounded by this mirror, but the most common one is that you can communicate with loved ones who have passed on. This mirror will not be here much longer due to the strange circumstances that it has ended up in this museum."

"I wonder what the real story is." Patty asked before Miss Aiden moved on. Cade only shrugged as his mother began to talk about the next artifact. "Oh no! I have to go." The blond girl almost yelled out.

"Okay. I had fun Patty; it was nice meeting you." He said with a smile and a wave and she did the same before sneaking out of the room and leaving. Cade snuck away to his mother's office not too long after Patty's departure.

"What do you mean he would like me to retrieve it for him?" He heard his mother's voice coming down the hall and then Mr. James' voice followed.

"He simply can't do it. I personally think this is a demon we are dealing with, so be careful." Cade got up from his chair and poked his head out of the office to see his mother standing there with the man he knew as Mr. James. "Besides, if this object is what you say it is, it may be important that you recover it for other reasons."

"Yes, of course. Abigail is a very powerful demon and if let loose he will destroy everything." Cade had no idea what his mother was talking about. "I will leave in the morning then. Should be no more than two days." His mother said before walking away from Mr. James who grabbed her by the arm and turned her back to look at him.

"Be careful Rowena. I don't want to see anything happen to you." He said reaching a hand up and tucking a stray lock of her hair behind her ear. Cade almost wanted to show himself and tell Mr. James that his mother was off limits.

"Thanks for your concern, Mr. James. I appreciate it." She said as he let her go and walked back towards her office. Cade barely had time to move from the door to the chair and grab his coloring book to pretend like he had been doing it this whole time. "Hey Honey, what are you doing?"

"Nothing. My friend had to go, and I was getting bored." He almost got caught. Almost.

Crisis adverted.


	7. Father and Son

There was a time in Dante's life where he was happy. That time was when he was a child and the future seemed limitless and pure to him, but as he grew older, he learned that the future was not so limitless. It was full of darkness and a looming presence in his life that would suck the happiness from it like a black hole would a bright star.

What do you do when the person you love keeps a big secret from you for years?

Dante sat on the floor in front of his desk with a bottle of whiskey in his right hand. He leaned against the desk with his elbow propped up on his knee and just sat there in reflection. How does someone keep something like that away from you? He was sure it was because it was his fault and honestly, he didn't deserve to even talk to Roe now. He even ignored the opening of the door.

"Well, look at you." It was Trish. "How pathetic." She walked up to him and lightly kicked his outstretched leg with her black boots. "Have you been like this all day?"

"Maybe." He said looking up at her with red eyes. "What do you want?" He had practically pleaded to her with those eyes to get him out of the mess he was in.

"I was in the area." She put a hand on her hip.

"Sure, you were. You're just here to tell me something else I don't know that I should know." He said before bringing the whiskey to his lips again. She rolled her eyes and grunted.

"You always do this. Every time you learn something life changing you pity yourself instead of going do something about it." Trish obviously knew too and that sort of pissed him off.

"How long have you known?" He looked up at her and put the bottle down.

"Not long. I paid her a visit and she had pictures of him all over her office. I wasn't going to get into it, but Lady called me and started ranting about how everything went to shit." Trish said as Dante sighed.

"Him?" So, he had a son. "At least you can be honest." He took another swig of whiskey.

"I'm not going to get into your business, Dante, but maybe you should do something about it before the kid becomes a target." Trish said before putting her sunglasses on. "I may not be the motherly type as you put it, but I know that you can do better than this." She told him before walking out of the shop and leaving him to his self-destructive ways again.

Dante sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Like it or not, Trish was right. He didn't know how to feel. He could just make sure the kid stayed safe from afar or even just not do anything about it. He groaned at the thought of it because he would not be any better than his own father if he did that and his mother would hate him for all eternity. He was pretty sure if Eva was alive, he would not be sitting here with a bottle of whiskey thinking about abandoning the only son he had.

"Shit." He said putting the bottle down on the floor and getting up. He picked up the picture of his mother and on the inside, he wanted so much for her to be here to help him sort over this mess. Hell, he even wanted his father here to at least tell him how to do this.

He had to find Roe.

Dante set the picture down and headed up the stairs to take shower and change clothes. He would track Roe down and try not to get angry at her while talking to her. He would do it just this once for his son only because the kid didn't deserve to be in a fight between his parents. His feelings for Roe hadn't changed, he still loved her, but he was angry. Angrier than he had been in a while.

Thirty minutes later he was dressed in jeans and a black t-shirt with a regular black jacket ready to go. He grabbed the keys to the motorcycle he bought a year or so ago and left Devil May Cry. Given that he knew she worked at the Museum it would be closing in half an hour, so he had enough time to make it there.

"Dante! Where are you going?" Patty's voice came from down the street as he walked down the steps. He looked up at her and stopped in his tracks. "What are you wearing?" She seemed really surprised that he normal clothes.

"Don't worry about it. I'll be back." He said continuing to where he parked the motorcycle. "Keep an eye on the shop."

"Okay..." The blond girl said in confusion as he pulled the sheet off the bike and got on.

Dante didn't say anything more as he started the bike and revved it up before taking off down the street. The whole time he did this he was trying hard not to convince himself to turn around and leave it alone. To leave Roe alone and to leave the kid alone, but then the image of Patty crossed his mind.

Out of all the people in his life, Patty was a little girl that wormed her way into his heart and honestly what would she think if he had left his own son without a father. She had no one. Well, she had him. He didn't want to disappoint her in that way. Outwardly he acted as though he didn't care, but he did. He cared and that was what made him do what he was doing now. He could hide and run away from it all he wanted, but the one person who would be hurt from all this was himself.

It wouldn't be his son, because the kid wouldn't ever know about him. Roe would probably find some other guy to bring into the kid's life, but that thought alone made Dante jealous. It wouldn't be Patty because she didn't know anything and honestly, she would stop coming around eventually. Lady would be fine, but she would probably abandon him for Roe since he was the one that did all the damage. It was so frustrating and stupid, but why did he always end up the one hurting?

As he pulled up at the steps of the Museum people were already beginning to leave the building, so he parked on the sidewalk and put the kickstand down before bounding up the steps. Once he got to the door however, he stopped. Dante looked at his reflection and saw himself angry, but at the same time he was feeling nervous.

Opening the door, he walked in putting his keys in his pocket while walking up to the front desk where a lady sat. She looked up with her red glasses and gave him a polite smile as he made his way up.

"Sorry, sir but the museum closes in ten minutes." She told him as he leaned on the counter.

"I know, I'm here to see Rowena Aiden." The lady's eyes widened as she realized who she was talking too. The resemblance was uncanny as she had seen the little boy with the same features run around the museum many times.

"Wait a moment while I page her, sir."

"It's okay Dot! I can take him to her." A small voice said from the other side of the front desk. Dante peaked over to the other side and saw a little boy with the same blue eyes and white hair that he had. "Come on Mister!" The kid had a grin on his face that seemed to hit Dante like a freight train.

"Thanks." He told the receptionist before walking around the desk to meet up with the kid that was a hundred percent his. "Lead the way kid."

"This way, she is in the dinosaur room!" The kid said running ahead a few steps before Dante followed him through the halls of the building. "She's probably cleaning up a mess or something." The boy turned around and walked backwards for a moment with a huge grin on his face.

"It must be cool to have a mom who works here." Dante said trying to be cool and calm when inside he was as wired as a rabbit at night.

"Sometimes. She's always going somewhere though." The kid turned back around before he took Dante into a room where there were dinosaur fossils everywhere and the giant sand pit in the middle where kids could pretend like they are digging. "She's over there."

"Thanks kid." Dante almost wanted to smile but didn't.

"It's Cade!" The boy said as he ran over to the sand pit and began to play. This caught Roe's attention as she was busy picking up little bits and pieces that were in the sand.

"Not a bad name." Dante said to himself. A feeling ran over him that he could only describe as pride. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

"Hey Mom! This man is here to see you." Cade said running over to meet her and she looked up at her son with a smile. The same smile that she once gave Dante on several occasions in the past before her eyes landed on the figure in question. The smile on her face disappeared like a ghost.

"Okay Honey, that's fine. I'll go talk to him." She gave Cade a worried smile before moving his long shaggy hair out of his eyes and kissing him on the cheek and then looking at Dante with hard eyes. It was her way of telling Dante that Cade was hers and if he tried anything she would not back down. "You stay here, okay? I'll be in my office." She said before standing up and walking towards Dante.

Honestly, he wanted to run away but instead he watched as she walked past him and waved at him to follow her. Dante couldn't help but to follow her, the anger all gone because she didn't give him the motion to be angry at the time. He supposed it was shock from seeing his son for the first time and he probably had the dumbest look on his face, but he followed her anyway. He would follow her anywhere actually.

"What are you doing here Dante?" She said as she brought him to her office after they went through the hallways and doorways in silence. She opened the door and let him in before going in herself and closing it behind them and locking it. Dante didn't say anything as he looked at the pictures she had on her desk and walls of Cade.

"You know why I'm here." He said picking up a picture from her desk and showing her after looking at it. It was just her and Cade in the picture. He was about two or three years old and sitting in her lap with a huge grin on his face and she was smiling that perfect smile.

"Lady just couldn't leave it alone I see."

"It wasn't her." He snapped. "And it wasn't Trish."

"Then it was the little girl then...Patty." Roe said as she pinched the bridge of her nose. Good thing for solid walls, because it was probably about to get violent.

"No. It wasn't Patty either." He gave her a hard look then sighed. "I figured it out myself."

"Oh of course, you are a detective." She went around him and sat down in her chair. "It doesn't matter anyway, you haven't changed."

"How would you know? You left! For seven years." He raised his voice a little. "And you didn't bother to tell me that you were pregnant." He wanted to point the blame on her then.

"Well, you were the one who just couldn't control yourself!" She stood up and tears started coming to her eyes. "You were just as irresponsible as I was, but you just ignored me after the fact right up until I told you I was leaving."

"I know." He said running a hand through his hair. "I made the mistake." This made her eyes widen.

"What do you mean?" She asked him.

"That night I took advantage of you." There was a weight that lifted off his chest then, but then another heaviness set in after it. It was regret that he messed up to the point where she kept an important piece away from him.

"You didn't take advantage of me you idiot." Her voice was full of mirth then. "I wanted it just as badly as you did." He looked up at her on the confession. "God you are dense. I wanted you and I thought I did something wrong." He was speechless for a second and then almost started to laugh.

"You didn't do anything wrong." He leaned on the back of a chair across from her desk with both hands and looked down trying to hide the emotion. "The only thing we did wrong Roe, was to handle things the way we did, and it cost both of us." He looked up and motioned to the picture of Cade on the wall behind her.

"When I found out, Lady was the first one to know. She for whatever reason had me convinced that you wouldn't be able to handle a baby." She turned and looked at the picture then turned back to him. Tears were starting to slip down her rosy cheeks. "So, I decided she was right and took the offer to go to Redgrave and get my degree there."

"She was right. There was no way I could do it, but if I remember right, my father couldn't either...at first." Dante said remembering what his mother had told him after Sparda had died. "I'm not going to try and make up for lost time or anything, but it's his choice whether he wants me there or not."

"Are you saying you don't care?" Roe furrowed her eyebrows trying to understand.

"I'm saying I don't want to put him in danger." It was half-truth. Dante wasn't going to fault the kid for anything because he was a kid. Cade was unfortunately Dante's son and that didn't sit with the man too well. "You know who and what I am, and you know exactly what I went through as a kid. I don't want that for him, and I don't want that for you either, so maybe it's better I stay my distance."

"How can you say that?" Roe pointed out with her temper rising.

"I can say that because I am responsible!" He was getting heated too. "It's my choice whether I want someone in my life or not!" Those were perhaps the coldest words he could've said to make her understand, but it was the truth.

"It's not up to you! Cade is the one that gets to suffer because you are afraid, and he gets to hate you later!" Roe yelled out with tears streaming down her face. "He is going to hate you and I hope you can live with that when he comes looking for you." She sighed and let out a shaky breath. "You would be no better than Vergil or your Father. You are better than they are and so much more human..."

"I'm not any better than they are, just different." He said before he walked over to the door and unlocked it.

"If Cade ends up hating you, could you live with it?" Her question stopped him right as he opened the door. That heaviness that he felt got even heavier as he thought about it. He would rather his son hate him later than he be taken away.

"It's better than losing him." To Dante this was the best thing he could do for the kid.

"I don't think you can. I think in your heart; you can't forgive yourself for the hate you have for your father." Roe said as she walked from her desk and towards him. "Don't you think it's time to start over?"

"Roe, just stop. You don't know me anymore." He said before leaving her to herself.

Walking down the hallway Dante could here grunts and the sounds of weapons slicing through the air as he passed a door on the right. It sounded like Cade. He didn't want to peak in, but he did anyway and what he saw was the boy just swinging around a small knife that was apparently a devil arm. Poor kid was trying hard to do something that should be natural. Dante couldn't help himself and thought about it for a moment before entering the room right as the kid fell on his back after attempting a high kick.

"Owww." Cade groaned out as he laid there on the floor. Dante groaned before walking over to the fallen kid.

"Okay, shows over kid. Good try." Dante's voice startled the boy making him turn into a stiff board. The man looked down at his son with his arms crossed and Cade just stared up at him wide eyed. "You could've gotten hurt if you had landed on the dagger."

"Please don't tell my mom!" He said jumping up as fast as he could.

"Give me the dagger." Dante held out his hand and Cade did as he was told out of respect and fear that the man would tell his mother. Some innate instinct told Dante that was what was going on. It also told Dante that he had to teach the kid a lesson here. Cade handed the weapon to him. "First off, this isn't the best weapon to learn with." Dante walked over to the empty spot on the wall where the dagger was originally and put it back.

"Okay."

"Second, you start with the basics." Dante turned back to his son with a smirk on his face. "Learn not to get caught at doing things like this."

"So, you won't tell my mom?" Cade perked up and looked at the father he didn't know about.

"No. As long as you stay away from sharp objects." The thought did occur to Dante that he could use this situation as blackmail for later. Then he had to remind himself that it was better if he didn't interact with Cade past this. "You better get going before your mom finds you in here." He had a feeling the kid wasn't supposed to be in here. Who would let a six-year-old in here anyway?

"What's your name?"

"Dante."

"You're my dad." Dante's eyebrows raised. "I know because mom has a picture of you and Aunt Lady, and I look just like you." The term about the apple not falling far from the tree rang true then and there because Cade had played them all. He was just like Dante and it scared the man.

"Yeah kid. You're right." Dante sighed and ran a hand through his hair because now he was in this impossible position. The kid knew who he was. He didn't know why the room seemed smaller and stuffier, but he had to sit down. Cade just looked at Dante as he lowered himself on the floor and leaned against the wall. "Kid, I'm going to be honest with you. I'm not ready to be a dad." Dante sighed as Cade sat down next to him.

"Why not?" Cade asked with the most innocent and curious look on his face. Dante couldn't help but smirk as he propped his knee up and rested his elbow on it.

"My dad wasn't the best dad. He tried, but in the end, he somehow got killed and left my mom, my brother, and I alone. We were defenseless and I lost them." Dante had to be brutally honest with his son to try and make him understand why he couldn't be the father that Cade wanted. "I guess I just don't want to feel that again."

"It's okay Dad." Cade said and Dante's eyes widened at the words that came from his son's mouth. "I'm just glad I got to meet you."

Shit.

"I don't know if I can do this." Dante said almost to the point where he was going to give up. There was no way he could let the kid go on without him. All the things that went through his mind about how if he wasn't around Cade would not be able to learn how to defend himself. Roe wouldn't be able to do it and of course Cade would be defenseless without him.

"Do what?"

"Don't worry about it." Dante got to his feet. "Get up." The boy did as he was told. "Stand here and put your right foot forward like this." Dante showed him how to get into a fighting stance.

Neither of them noticed that Roe had opened the door just enough to slip in and watch. Her eyes were still red, but at least her tears had dried up for the time being. The smile on her face was enough to lighten the air in the room as she watched the man, she loved to teach their son how to get into a fighting position.

She knew he could do it.


	8. Starting Over

Roe sat on the steps of Devil May Cry watching Dante work on the old car he had found in the junkyard a few weeks ago. She had no idea he knew how to fix up a car, but apparently he did and when she arrived there that morning to see the tow truck unloading the rust heap of metal she had thought he had lost his mind. Now the devil hunter was just picking it apart like it was nothing and throwing pieces of rusted metal onto the sidewalk.

"He really did get that piece of junk." Lady said coming to sit next to her on the steps with a cold beer in her hand and handing one over to Roe.

"He said it was a deal he couldn't pass up." Roe told her friend as she popped the can of beer open. "Fifty bucks later and he has a pile of rust." She referred to the car but she had to admit that watching Dante's muscles work underneath that tight grey shirt he had on was well worth it.

"He is stubborn that's for sure. Can barely pay the bills right now, but has enough money to fix up a pile of junk." Lady leaned against Roe with a smile. "Besides, I want to see him fail a little." She winked and Roe gave out a little giggle.

"Just a smidge right?" The chestnut haired woman said putting her index finger and thumb close together but not touching to emphasize her point.

"Yeah Just a smidge." Lady said as Dante looked up at them.

"What are you two doing over there?"

"Nothing, just watching you work as usual." Lady told him sitting up straight and taking a nice long gulp of her beer.

"So what kind of car is it again?" Roe asked him not knowing anything about cars as he grabbed a towel to wipe off his hands and came to sit down next to her.

"It's an old Mustang." He said taking her beer from her and drinking the rest before handing the empty can back to her. She looked at it with disappointment. "Remember how my room had all kinds of pictures of Mustangs on the walls?" She nodded turning her attention back to him. Despite how sweaty he was, she really did like that smell he gave off and when it was mixed with the smell of oil and gas it seemed to really make her squirm.

"So you mean this is your childhood dream here? Geeze I thought you would have pictures of naked girls all over your room or something." Lady said leaning back on the steps and resting on her elbows. Dante grabbed the empty can out of Roe's hand and threw it at Lady, hitting her on the cheek.

"This was when I was eight. I didn't discover girls until I was thirteen." Roe almost blushed as she thought about Dante's trip through puberty.

"Yeah, he was really obsessed with cars and motorcycles when he was a kid. His room used to be covered in posters of them and I remember Vergil always telling him that it was stupid." Of course Vergil never paid attention to her anyway so it was not as if he didn't count. Dante on the other hand would always fight with his brother over the posters. "It was bad." Dante didn't say anything and neither did she at the memories of the boys getting into fights.

"You spent a lot of time at his house?" Lady asked her and she nodded.

"Her parents were always going places without her." Dante told Lady putting an arm around Roe's shoulders and allowing her to lean on him. "They are jetsetters."

"Where are they now?"

"Probably overseas. I haven't heard from them since I got out of high school." Roe said sadly as she grabbed onto Dante's arm and held on to it. To him they were best friends who could be comfortable around each other, but to her he was much more than that. "They weren't happy with my career choices or the fact that I was different."

"I get it. Because of your talent." The raven haired woman sitting next to her sighed and Dante squeezed her shoulders. Roe couldn't help be feel slightly aroused at his smell and honestly she had to get away.

"I'm going to go get us some more beer." She cleared her throat and removed Dante's arm from her shoulders before going inside and shutting the door behind her. Her heart was beating a thousand times a minute and she felt as though she would explode.

She leaned up against the door with her hand clutched to her chest and had to take deep breaths. Over the last year since meeting him again, she had slowly fallen for Dante and everything he did made her feel more and more. It was only a matter of time before she couldn't hide it anymore and she was sure she would be rejected.

At least that was what happened then, but now it was different. Now she had a son with him and there she was watching Dante with their son as he went over rules in hand to hand combat. Her heart was beating a thousand times a minute again as she felt like she was falling deeper and deeper again. It was that same feeling from way back when.

"The better your center of balance, the better you can take a hit." Dante said as he positioned himself to show Cade exactly what he was trying to convey. The little boy was able to do it and then Dante pushed him lightly to emphasize the point almost causing Cade to fall over. "See?" The smile on Cade's face was genuine and happy. Happier than Roe had seen in a long time and she continued to watch the pair.

"Where did you learn to fight?" Cade asked his father.

"My Dad, until he died. Then I wondered around for a while." The man said not giving anymore details than that. Roe was sure Dante would have to explain everything when Cade got older, if Dante decided to stick around. He caught her gaze as he turned to walk around Cade. "Some of it came naturally."

"So will I be able to fight one day?"

"If you want. If your mom lets you that is." He crouched down in front of Cade and ruffled the boy's hair.

"Dad, did you love mom?" The question came out of nowhere and Roe could see Dante freeze up and flick his eyes to her as though he were asking for permission to say something.

"I cared about her. A lot actually." He closed his eyes and shook his head before looking Cade in the eyes. "Yeah, I did love her. Still do." He looked straight at her with the last words and her poor heart almost stopped beating. "But I did something stupid so I have to make amends for that."

Roe couldn't take it anymore so she had to leave the room as tears started to run down her cheeks at Dante's words. She silently left when his attention went back to Cade and walked silently into the hallway and leaned against the wall. There was so much damage to clear away between them or maybe there wasn't and both of them were making a bigger deal over it than it was. She felt guilty. So guilty for not telling him anything. She could've saved herself a lot of pain if she had just told him how she felt from the very beginning. Maybe they would've been okay.

Pushing off the wall she walked to her office and shut the door before Dante could see her in this state. Now she was the one that made the mistake. It wasn't his fault and as much as she wanted to put the blame on someone else, it was ultimately her fault that Cade grew up without his father. She made the choice to leave and it was out of fear.

She sat down in her chair and began to cry. Heavy sobs accompanied her heavy heart as she realized she was the villain in the picture. Roe had this picture in her mind of when she found out she was pregnant and instead of the way things were they played out differently. Dante actually being happy about Cade instead of afraid to be a father. Granted she knew he was scared shitless and when she found out she was scared too, but instead of talking to him she ran away.

There was a knock on her door.

"Roe?" It was him. She wiped her tears away with her sleeves.

"Come in." The door opened and Dante walked in for the second time that day. She just couldn't face him so she leaned her head back and looked at the ceiling. "Where is Cade?"

"Your assistant..." He said coming to stand in front of her desk.

"Okay."

"Roe." Dante said trying to get her attention, but she refused to look at him because she couldn't bare to show him how much she regretted everything. "Look at me." He almost growled out and she slowly looked at him with red eyes. "I couldn't do it."

"I know. I know you couldn't walk away that easy." She clasped her hands together and looked down at them. "Cade never asked about you. He didn't say anything to me about you or how he knew about the picture. He's so smart like you and I just couldn't bring myself to tell him anything." She sniffed as more tears started to roll from her eyes. Dante just stood there listening with an intense look on his face. "He is so much like you when you were a kid."

"He isn't as bad as I was." No. No one could ever be as bad as Dante when he was a kid. He was into everything and causing trouble by pranking whoever happened to be in the area. "He will never be as bad as I was because you raised him." There was a solitary tone in his voice that made Roe feel guilty. She put her hands on the armrests of her chair and then started to tap the ends with her fingers.

"What are you going to do?" She asked trying to avoid her guilt.

"That's up to you Roe." He ran a hand through his hair and sat down. "I feel like I'm not in control of this situation and I don't like it, but I respect you enough to let you make all the decisions."

"I wanted you to be in Cade's life from the beginning, but I was too stupid to see the damage that I did by just leaving and not giving you the chance." She looked him in the eyes and stared at him for a moment before going on. "I am the one that should be sorry."

"Yeah, maybe." He stared back at her. "I honestly don't know what I would've done then. I want to say I would be okay, but I don't know."

"But you're okay now?"

"Hell no. I'm freaking out on the inside." Dante chuckled a little. "I'm freaking out because I have a kid." She could tell it was blowing his mind and the way he acted earlier was his reaction to it but he was accepting it now. "I'm freaking out because I freaked out. Does that make sense?" He shook his head. "No it doesn't."

"Dante...its okay. You are allowed to have your freak-out moment." Roe stood up from her chair and walked over to him leaning down and hesitantly putting her hands on his face and making him look at her. "It's just you and I." She said to him and his eyes widened as she let him go.

"We can start over can't we?" Dante asked almost pleading with her and she had only seen him like this a couple times in his life. The first time was when his father had died. They had almost lost each other then because he couldn't get over Sparda's death. The second time was when her parents wouldn't take him in and he was going into foster care. He pleaded with her that night that Cade was conceived. She stood up strait and just as she was about to turn around he grabbed her wrist. "Please?"

"Okay." Roe turned to look at him and before she knew it she was in his arms. "Dante." She couldn't help but rest her head on his chest and close her eyes. The silly part is that she felt like she had gone back in time to when they were just friends. Cade wasn't even a thought in their minds and they could just be friends. He still smelled the same. That powerful scent of musk that only made her weak in the knees. He let her go and she was suddenly cold.

"I have to go." Dante told her as he let her go. "Cade said you were leaving tomorrow morning." He looked down at her and she nodded.

"A job came up that I have to take care of myself." She took a step backwards and sat on her desk. "A client specifically requested me and I have to do it otherwise we lose the client."

"What about Cade?"

"He will be staying at Maggie's house. Her parents are good friends of mine and they don't mind taking Cade for the next couple days." Dante nodded and then turned around with this defeated aura. "You could go get him from school on Monday if you want to." She told him. It seemed that he had formed some attachment to Cade while he was showing her little boy how to get in a fighting stance. He turned back to face her and she caught the look of surprise in his blue eyes.

"Are you sure?" She nodded in reply.

"He is really easy. Feed him pizza and he likes grape soda. Make sure he does his homework and make sure he gets back to Maggie's before eight thirty." She told him with a smile. "Consider this starting over." She crossed her arms over her chest as he nodded in acceptance. "I'll leave some money with him."

"Right. I can do this."

"If you can handle demons, you can handle your son." She said before he turned around to face her again.

"Okay." Dante said taking a deep breath. "Where are you going?"

"The relic I'm looking for is being guarded by someone and last I heard she was in Valor." He nodded. "Don't worry, I am only going to talk her into selling it to our client." She said as he took a step closer to her and looked her over one more time.

"You will call me if you get in trouble right?"

"Absolutely, but I doubt anything bad will happen." Roe told him with a smirk on her face.

The look on his face said something completely different.


	9. Adjusting

Dante sat in his usual booth at Freddi's with Cade sitting across from him. He wasn't sure how to do all of this and honestly he hadn't thought about what Sonja or Cindy would say when they set eyes on his son. He was sure that it would be a chorus of squeals or giggles about Cade.

"Why are you so quiet?" Dante heard and turned his attention to Cade.

"I don't have much to say."

"Oh." Cade said as he put his chin on the table.

"Don't do that." Dante said with a chastising look. It wasn't as if the kid were doing anything wrong, it was just something that he himself had been told on several occasions by his own mother not to do. "Does your mom let you do that?"

"No."

"Then you shouldn't do it." Dante said and Cade sat up straight with a terrified look on his face. He honestly didn't mean to sound so harsh, but he had no idea what the hell he was doing. He was a do what you want kind of guy, not a strict kind of guy, but he just didn't know. He sighed and slumped. "Sorry kid. I just don't know what I'm doing." At least he could admit it.

"Is this your son Dante?" Cindy said as she rolled up with the usual grin on her face. Before Dante had a chance to answer Cade blurted out.

"Yep! That's my Dad!" With the biggest grin on his face and full of pride and excitement that made Dante cringe a bit. The kid was just a bundle of joy.

"He's really cute Dante, you are really lucky." Cindy winked at the devil hunter who just blew it off as if it were nothing, but on the inside there was a ton of emotions that were coursing through him. "What can I get you two?"

"Pepperoni pizza please!" Cade half yelled out in excitement and knowing how much he put down when he was a child, Dante held up his two fingers.

"Make that two Cindy. If he is my kid he can put a whole pizza down in no time." The grin on Cade's face only brightened. "May as well add two strawberry sundae's for dessert."

"Okay and what do you want to drink?" Cindy said writing the order down on her notepad.

"Grape soda please!"

"I'll take the usual Cindy." Dante said as the waitress finished writing down the order and then rolled away with her smile still intact. "I figured you like strawberry sundaes."

"I've never had them. Mom said that's too much sugar for me so she doesn't let me get them." Of course, leave it to Roe to be all uptight about sugar intake. She used to bother him about that too, but eventually she stopped when she realized sugar didn't really bother him. He had a high metabolism to begin with.

"What your mom doesn't know can't hurt her." But she could certainly hurt him. "Besides, you're with me. What I say goes."

"Okay. So does this mean I get to stay with you while Mom is gone?" Cade asked.

"No, you get to go to Maddie's..."

"It's Maggie, Dad." Cade said with a blank face as he corrected Dante.

"Okay. Maggie's house after you do your homework." Dante almost glared at the kid across from him. It wasn't annoying, but he guessed it felt a little different from when Patty would correct him on names. "Your Mom's orders."

"Okay. I just wanted to stay with you." There was a tone of disappointment as Cade looked down at his hands and then back up at Dante. It seemed this kid thought the world of Dante already and really the devil hunter had no idea how to feel about this.

"Look, kid, I know you want to stay with me." He took a deep breath as Cade looked at him with disappointed eyes that burned Dante's soul. "But neither of us are ready for that. I'm not ready and I have no idea what to do. I don't even know how to take care of a kid, so this is just me and you getting to know each other." Dante said leaning forward and pointing to Cade and back to himself. The devil hunter knew that he wasn't ready to take on the kid full time and just a few hours would probably be all he could take for now. "One day we may be able to hang out all day, but right now, we take it one hour at a time. Okay?"

Honestly, Dante wouldn't know how much those words would be come true over the years to come, but he knew that it was how he felt. Fatherhood was new to him. Yeah, he may have been a father for years now, but he hadn't known. This was just a surprise that was thrust on him and yes he did freak out about it to the point where he didn't want to be in the kids life at all, but now he regretted ever thinking those thoughts. The first thing he had thought of when he saw his son for the first time was that maybe things would work out. Now it seemed that they would and with Roe as well. It just needed time.

"Hey Dad?"

"Yeah?" He still wasn't used to being called that, but he went with it anyway.

"Can you teach me to fight?" Dante's eyebrow rose and he seemed to get the gist.

"When you learn what I taught you already."

"So, when will that be?" Cade asked with his eyebrows raised in hopefulness. Dante shook his head and scoffed with a smile.

"It takes time, Kid." He could see how much of himself was in the boy sitting across from him to the point where it was scary. "One step at a time and you'll get there, but not before getting your butt handed to you a few times." Dante said thinking back on all the times he had his own ass handed to him by his father and then Vergil. The latter of the two was the one who challenged him the most.

"Okay." The tone of Cade's voice reminded Dante that the kid was still a kid. The expression on the boy's face said everything and he empathized with his son. He had been there at some point too.

"Don't do that."

"Don't do what?" The boy asked as his father sighed.

"Don't overthink it." If there was one thing Dante would learn going down this new path, it would be patience and he knew right now that his son was going to overthink everything. Just like Roe. "You're Mom does that. She overthinks so much it drives her crazy sometimes and she turns into a witch." Meaning she let her emotions get the better of her and no doubt Cade probably knew that.

"You mean a Bitch?" The word flew out of Cade's mouth faster than Dante could react to it and when he heard the word, the half devil almost cheered. Instead he gave his son a glare. Profanity would not be something Roe would want to hear coming out of her son's mouth and surely Dante would be to blame. Instead of praising Cade, Dante held up his right index finger and closed his eyes.

"I don't want to hear that word come from your mouth again. Capisce?"

"Okay." The boy answered back sheepishly.

"Good. We don't call women that word. You've got to respect the ladies even if they don't look like they are ladies." It didn't take long for Cade to let that sink in before Cindy returned with their drinks. She set them out on the table and then rolled away while Cade sipped his down as fast as he could. Dante just sipped on his coffee like it wasn't ever going to get cold while taking in the features of his son.

There was hardly any of Roe to be seen in Cade's features. He was like a clone of Dante. Right down to the cheekbones and face. Of course, there were subtle hints of Roe, but you couldn't tell unless you really looked at Cade and Dante was kind of upset over this. He didn't know if he could ever get used to having a kid around, but if it meant having Roe back in his life, then he would learn to be a father. It wasn't something he was born to do for sure, or so he thought.

Half an hour later the demon hunter was sitting on a park bench watching Cade swing and seeing other kids running around with him. It was almost surreal. Once a long time ago, Dante had a fraction of that life and then it had gone up in flames. Literally. Seeing his son play with other kids who didn't seem to care that he was different made Dante realize that he wasn't that different. Maybe he had just made himself appear different to save himself heartache. He wasn't totally sure, but upon thinking about it, it did make a lot of sense.

"Hey Dad!" Dante was roused from his thoughts as Cade came running up to him with something in his hands. "Look at what I got." Dante carefully looked to see what his son had found and wasn't too shocked to see a lonely old toad covered in dirt. He almost felt sorry for the amphibian.

"It's a toad." He sounded unimpressed.

"Yeah, but he is far away from home." Cade pulled his hands closer to him in order to keep the poor creature safe from harm. "Can we go bring him to the pond?"

"I guess." The platinum haired man said standing up from the bench not really caring about going put a toad in the pond, but if it made the kid happy then fine. "You know you're mom would freak out right? She doesn't like frogs or toads." He was trying. He really was.

"How did you know?" Cade walked beside his father with the toad still in the safety of his hands.

"When your mom and I were kids, I put a frog down the back of her shirt as a joke." He told his son. "She ran away screaming and we didn't see her for two days after that." The story made Cade giggle at the thought of his mother running away screaming because of a frog.

"Did she get you back after that?"

"Yep. She pushed me onto a hornets nest." The giggle that came from Cade put a smile on Dante's face for the first time that day. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to actually spend time with his own child. "She was mad at me for a while after that and every time she would try to do something stupid I threatened to put a frog in her shirt or in her bed. She had nightmares for weeks after that." He could almost hear her voice thinking about it.

"Dante you jerk!" She stomped her foot as he sat on the big rock on the edge of the creek. "Why did you do that?" She had mud all over her new dress and in her hair.

"Because your dress looked too new." He laughed while Vergil just sighed where he sat in his tree reading a book.

"Stop antagonizing her Dante, she's hurting my ears." Vergil said to his brother. Roe could be a very loud person when treated unfairly.

"Fine." The younger twin said with a sigh of his own before hopping off his perch and walking up to her. She had started to tear up because of the way Dante treated her, but in reality, he just couldn't stand that she was always perky. Always trying to be like them when she was so different. "I'm sorry."

"No you aren't." She said crossing her arms over her chest with a pouted lip. "You always do this."

"Do what?" He looked at her like he had no idea what she was talking about and started to walk around her. He had spotted a tree frog sitting on the trunk of Vergil's tree and suddenly got an idea.

"Stop acting like you're all innocent Dante!" She stomped her foot again as he pretended to use the tree as a place to lean against when he was really collecting the frog.

"Dante, just stop." Vergil's irritated voice came from above and Dante almost had a hard time keeping a strait face. Instead of saying anything he just walked right up behind Roe and pulled the collar of her dress back and threw the frog down in there. "DANTE!" Vergil saw the whole thing and jumped down as Roe started to panic.

"GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!" She was going around in circles and Dante couldn't help but laugh as she danced in panic. Her high pitched voice screaming out in fright. "DANTE YOU JERK! I HATE YOU!" She said as the frog had landed on the ground before she ran off crying all the way to her house.

That evening when the twins sat down for dinner with their mother she didn't look so pleased with them. Instead it had been very quiet and the two boys looked at each other knowing that they were about to receive a very stern lecture from their beloved mother on the subject of how to treat girls.

"Dante, I am disappointed in you." Eva told her youngest boy as they had finished eating their food. She was all about manners and treating everyone fairly even though she was not treated the same as the other women in town. "Roe's mother said you threw mud on her new dress then you put a frog down the back of it?"

"Mom, I..." Dante tried to defend himself and his brother kicked him under the table to shut him up.

"What did I tell you about picking on girls?" Eva was a formidable woman and a very good mother. She did her best to raise her sons right and she had done everything in her power to make sure they understood that they were not heathens.

"To not pick on girls?" Vergil rolled his eyes.

"No you idiot, you treat girls with respect." The older twin said crossing his arms over his chest in disappointment of his brother. "I don't like Roe, but I treat her better than you do." This was a fact.

"Okay, I'm sorry. I won't do it again."

Except he continued to pick on Roe after that. He did everything he could to irritate her as a child and years later after she walked back into his life, that urge to irritate her had turned into something completely different. She had gotten under his skin back then and as an adult, she had dug deeper into his heart. Now they had a son together and he honestly did not see it coming. His mother would've loved Cade.

"Dad, what was Mom like when she was a kid?" He and Cade were sitting at the edge of the pond watching the ducks swim after letting the poor toad go. Dante didn't have to think hard about that answer.

"Annoying." That was the only really honest answer he could come up with off the top of his head then several others popped up. "She was a brat and she had this annoying habit of stomping her foot when she didn't get her way or when she got mad." He propped his knee up to rest his elbow on it and saw that Cade did the same thing trying to copy him. "Hmph, she would get this frown when I lied to her about something and she still does it." He smirked at the memory of her frowning in disbelief over what he told her about salamanders and how they could get into her brain. She wore the same frown when he told her that the clear liquid in her solo cup was just water when they had met up again. She could see through his lies.

"I know that look. She does it when I lie about my homework." Dante nodded in understanding as Cade smiled at him. "No one can get past Mom."

"Nope."

"Dad?" Dante still hadn't come to terms with that new title that had been bestowed upon him in the last week.

"What?" He asked his son.

"Are you mad at my Mom for keeping me a secret?" The answer was a simple one. Dante knew that he had been very angry at first and then he stopped to think about it after a couple days.

"No. I'm not." Dante took this time to really think about his next words to his son, hoping that he would take them for what they were. "She did what she thought was right and she was right." He didn't say anything else as Cade stayed silent himself letting the answer sink in. Both of them sat there watching the sun sink lower on the horizon.


	10. The Amulet

There was something about spending the summer with friends that Roe could never get over. It was full of beer, pizza, burgers, and fun at the beach for most college students. That wasn't her at all. A couple months ago she had run into Dante again and now they were rekindling their friendship again, slowly but surely.

"What are you doing out here?" She looked up from where she sat on the steps outside of Devil May Cry as Dante was pulling his hair back into a short ponytail. "I was looking for you."

"It's a lot cooler out here than it is in there." She smiled up at him as he sat down next to her in his white tank and blue jeans.

"Yeah I guess so." He rubbed his forehead and realized he was sweating pretty good. "Damn it is hot." He fell back, laying down and putting his hands over his head.

"Maybe you should look into fixing that AC." Roe told him not moving from her spot and watching as he just blew air from his mouth. He was lazy and while he had grown up from the mean little boy he was to her back in the day, he was more closed off.

"Maybe." Dante seemed to be bored again. "What I would give for a breeze or a dip in a cold creek somewhere." The answer to that question was probably something along the lines of forgoing pizza for a day, but she knew for sure she was grasping at straws on that one. She never knew what Dante was thinking. "I'm bored."

"Teach me to shoot." She said and he looked over to her with a raised eyebrow and she gave him a serious look.

"What brought this on?" He sat up and got closer to her to get a good look in her eyes to see if there was some sort of trauma. Some hint of memory that caused her to want to learn something like this. She knew what he was looking for.

"I just want to know how to defend myself if I need too. My parents were anti-gun remember?" Roe gave him a smirk and he smirked back at her before standing up and walking back in the shop with a purpose. He came back out a few minutes later with a backpack full of empty beer bottles and his guns.

"Come on, we can't shoot here." He handed her the backpack and walked towards his motorcycle parked on the sidewalk and she stood up to follow him. "I know a pretty good place to go that won't attract attention."

Roe ran her fingers over the pistol strapped to her thigh as she sat in the little dive bar in Capulet years later waiting for Nina Lowell to make her appearance. She wasn't well versed in martial arts like Dante was, but because he taught her how to shoot, she was a very good marksman. She sat at the end of the bar in silence while sipping on a dry martini waiting for the blond woman she had followed from New York. She was also sure that Nina knew she was following.

When the blond woman walked in and sat down three seats down from her, Roe kept her distance. She waited until the woman ordered a drink before moving closer and sitting down with a bar stool between them. Now was the time to have a good talk with Nina Lowell.

"Give her whatever she wants, it's on me." Roe told the bar tender who nodded in return and saw that Nina had looked at her with wide eyes.

"You don't have to do that." The blond said and Roe could see the resemblance between her and Patty. It made sense that Nina was Patty's mother and it was clear as day.

"It's the least I can do since I've been following you." Nina nodded and somehow understood what Roe meant by this as the bar tender brought a glass of whiskey and set it down in front of her. "I apologize for it, but it seems I am not the only one following you."

"You're right. I've been followed my entire life all because of this." Nina held up the necklace that hung around her neck seeming to know that Roe wasn't there to hurt her in any way. Roe was able to get a good look at it and honestly, she really didn't want to take it from the blond.

"You seem very forthcoming with someone you shouldn't trust." The chestnut-haired woman said as she took another sip of her martini. "Honestly, you probably already know who I work for by now." She set her now empty martini glass down on the bar before crossing her forearms and leaning on it.

"I do, but it doesn't look like you really want to take it from me." Nina took a sip from her own glass.

"No not really."

"Then why are you following me?" Nina asked her, looking into her grey eyes.

"When I was hired to find Alan's tear, I was told that there was a client who was very interested in it. I have two weeks to get it to him, however, when looking up who this client was, I found out that he is someone you are familiar with. The same man who is going to lead you to someone I know very well." It always led back to Dante and that seemed to be the case for everything. She gave Nina a smile before standing up and putting money on the bar for Nina's drink. "I'll see you around."

Roe walked off leaving Nina alone to finish her drink in peace and then exited the bar. Somehow this whole situation left her with a bad taste in her mouth and it wasn't as if she could take the amulet from Nina, it was that she knew a better way to solve this issue. Perhaps going to Dante would be the better option and it wasn't as if she were going to get paid anyway. If she knew any better, she was going to be killed before even getting payment and it would be wise to let the Black House know they weren't going to get paid either. This wasn't the first time this had happened.

Walking down the street she contemplated on how to handle this situation carefully. First things first, she would have to call her boss and explain the situation to him so she wouldn't get in trouble. Then, a trip to Devil May Cry would probably be in order. Dante was either going to be in a mood or not, but at least he would listen to her.

When she walked into Devil May Cry, Dante was there sitting in his chair with feet up on the desk and magazine over his face. Some things never changed and the fact that the place was a pig sty again didn't faze her at all. He didn't even bother to acknowledge her when the door opened, even though he probably knew it was her. She put a hand on her hip and sighed.

"Some things never change." Her voice carried across the room and she barely saw the twitch of Dante's shoulders as the sound hit him. He slowly took the magazine off his face and looked at her with his icy blue eyes.

"I thought you were out of town." He put the magazine down on his desk and sat up putting his feet on the floor as she walked closer to him. "What are you doing here?"

"Working." The same answer she gave him when they had met on the Casino barge. "How did things go with Cade?"

"Good. I guess." He looked positively bored to death and it was a good thing too because she had just the thing to cure his boredom. "I took him to get pizza and then we went to the park."

"Did he have fun?" As a mother, she hoped her son and his father bonded but the way Dante was acting told her that he was having trouble with that.

"I guess." Was the only answer he could come up with.

"Are you at least trying to bond with your son?" Roe was probably being too critical with him and she shouldn't have been since this was all new to Dante. He needed time, but it seemed as though he was trying.

"What do you want me to do Roe? Pretend that this was all okay and we played catch?" He ran a hand down his face in frustration and then leaned back in his chair again wanting to run away from this conflict with her. She realized she was expecting too much out of him and let herself be understanding of this situation. "This is all new to me Roe, so I am trying. I have no idea what the hell I am doing much less how to comfort the kid." He was frustrated and she was asking too much.

"I'm sorry, I just...I guess I was expecting too much." She looked down at her feet in remorse.

"Don't worry about it. I have no example to go by Roe, so it's kind of hard for me to figure out how all this is going to work." He leaned forward again and rested his elbows on the desk and looked up at her. "What are you working on?" He asked her, changing the subject so it wouldn't cause any problems.

"It's a long story, but a woman is probably going to come by here tomorrow looking for someone to take on a job." Dante eyed the love of his life suspiciously before she continued. "I know what you are thinking, but it's a job you would be interested in and it's something that I can't handle."

"Okay, so what is it?"

"It's an amulet that seems to attract demons. I was supposed to retrieve it for a client, but I'm not equipped to deal with this." Roe started pacing and Dante's eyes followed her noticing the changes in her demeanor since her college days. "You have to take it on."

"Fine." He told her running a hand through his hair and standing up from his chair to walk around the desk. He grabbed her by the arms and looked her in the eyes. "It's going to cost you though."

"What?" Roe looked at him confused.

"I'll think of something, but you owe me." To be honest she owed him several times over for babysitting Cade a few days ago. "Big time."

"Fine whatever, just take the job and I'll do whatever you want." She stood still as he let her go and her eyes followed him as he walked over to couch and sat down. Roe sat down across from him. They needed to talk more about what had happened in the past and then figure out where to go from here. "I missed you." She looked down at her hands and started twiddling her thumbs in anxiety. "Every time I looked at Cade, I saw you and then I would remember every detail about you."

"I can't say the same about you." He looked up at her trying to make it sound like he had no interest in remembering her, but the sad part was that he did think about her all the time when he was alone. He had been so depressed all these years that part of it was because she had left. "Every time I was alone, I could just picture you off with someone else living a happy life while I was here stuck in my own hell hole."

"So, you just expected me to move on and forget about you?" Roe sighed and looked up at him with anger in her eyes. "You're an idiot." She stood up and walked over to the door, stopping at it and looking back at him. "Just take the job tomorrow." She said before walking out and leaving him alone yet again.

Maybe he was an idiot.

Dante sat there for a while thinking about what just happened and realized that no matter what they said to each other their relationship was in shambles. Either it was because they couldn't really admit to each other how they really felt or if it was because they were both very different people now than seven years ago. Either way, it was going to either end badly or not happen at all. There was no third choice in recovering everything they had once had, or really what they had never had. He wasn't going to use his son as an excuse to try and rekindle a relationship that was probably dead. It wouldn't be fair to either of them, and it wasn't as if he were looking to repair it anyway. That ship sailed.

The problem was that he loves her, and he couldn't admit it to her. The least he could do was to get to know his son and try to raise him the best he knew how. Even if it meant never being able to be happy with Roe. He remembered when she had asked him to teach her how to shoot and how she had made him feel so nervous on the inside.

"So, I just point and shoot right?" Roe said lifting the gun with one arm and he stood behind her as she aimed at the empty beer bottles sitting on the wooden fence post.

"A little more to it than that." He said taking her other hand and showing her how to hold the gun. "Hold it like this so you can aim right." He had given her Ebony to shoot with since that gun was the least likely to fuss with a newbie while Ivory could be rather fussy. He got close behind her and used his foot to widen her stance. "And a good stance to help you absorb the recoil."

"Like this?" She looked back at him and he nodded before he moved her arms up to steady them.

"Use your sights to aim at the bottle on the left." She had no idea that most of the sweat he was dripping was from how she was so close to him. Like any hot-blooded male, he would get flustered when near a female, but she was different. Ever since they were children, he had liked her, and it wasn't until recently he had realized she was not a little girl anymore. "Squeeze, don't pull." He stepped away from her to see her aim the gun at the bottle and then stand still enough to shoot when she was comfortable. When she did fire the gun, it scared her and then she started laughing.

"I missed!" Roe wasn't laughing because she missed, she was laughing because she was expecting this strong recoil when there wasn't much of one. Dante knew his guns well enough to know that the recoil was less than a rifle. "Oh my god that was great." She said calming down and focusing again before aiming at the bottle again, this time with determination on hitting it.

That may have been the moment he realized he loved her, or it may have been the moment he realized he had always loved her. Putting frogs down her shirt was just the start of it, but he was certain then just as much as he was now that there would be no other woman for him. Even as he sat on the couch in his shop remembering these things. Without question, he would rather die than live without her and that meant sucking up the doubt and trying to make things right.

Dante groaned as he laid down on the couch.

"I'm an idiot."

He most certainly was.


	11. The Job

He really needed to stop upsetting Patty with his idiotic words.

Dante washed off his face after being hit with a mop several times in the face by the little girl he considered family at this point. It wasn't that he was annoyed, he was annoyed, but it was the fact that he had been in a bad mood since the night before when Roe came in to tell him about the job he should accept. Well, that and the fact he was currently kicking himself in the ass for being an ass to someone he actually cared about.

Patty had run out of the shop faster than he could move and honestly, he decided it was best not to go after her because she needed to cool off on her own. The girl was eight years old and probably wouldn't go too far or she would go back to the orphanage only to show up again tomorrow. He did feel guilty for the things he said to her about cleaning up his messes and he would make it up to her somehow. That wasn't the worst part of it though, it was that she was alone and she needed him. Just like Cade needed him.

He sighed wiping his face with a dry towel before leaving the bathroom and finding Morrison sitting on the couch waiting for him. The Devil Hunter sat down across from his agent as the black man lit up a cigar and began to smoke it down.

"She should be here shortly." He said leaning back on the couch and letting out the smoke he had inhaled.

"Any idea what this is about?" Dante said picking up a magazine and looking through it before putting it back down and leaning back against the couch he was sitting on.

"Well, from what I know, this lady has been followed by demons since she was a kid all because of some necklace or something like that." Morrison took another drag from his cigar and huffed. "I heard Roe was back in town."

"You remember her?"

"How could I forget the lovely young lady that had you acting like some lovesick puppy." Morrison gave Dante a grin and the younger man grunted at the thought of being seen as a lovesick puppy. He had never been a lovesick puppy. "The moment she enters the room she lights it up and then you follow her around making sure no one else touches her."

"That was a long time ago." Dante tried denying it, but the look in his eyes betrayed him.

"I also heard she has a kid." Morrison was digging in deep to make the younger man squirm and while Dante wasn't going to rip the other man's head off for it, he was definitely going to make Morrison pay for it later. "Looks just like you."

"I know."

"So, you did the deed with her then?" Dante glared.

"It's none of your business Morrison." The younger man stood up and walked over to his desk and sat in the chair.

"I never thought I'd see the day when you would have a kid." Dante didn't say anything, he just picked up an empty beer can and threw it at Morrison to get him to shut up, however all it did was make him chuckle when it missed him. "Times are changing for sure." The older man smiled as he took another drag.

"His name is Cade." Dante said putting his feet up on the desk and leaning back in his chair with his hands behind his head. He actually felt some sort of pride talking about his son to Morrison. "I just don't know how to really connect with him."

"It's because you came late to the game." The older man said with an all knowing smile. "Give it time, you'll figure it out." Morrison told him with a sure tone in his voice as the door opened to reveal a blond headed woman. "Ah, here we go."

"I'm sorry I'm late, traffic was worse than I thought it would be." She told the two men in the room as she shut the door behind her and went to sit down on the couch across from Morrison. Dante didn't move as she made herself comfortable and he found there was a certain familiarity with her.

"It's no problem at all." Morrison told her, setting her at ease as she crossed her legs politely and put her hands in her lap. "Why don't you tell us what this job is and we can settle it accordingly." She nodded and reached behind her neck to undo the clasp of her necklace and put it on the table in front of her.

"I need you to look after this for the time being." She told Morrison who motioned to Dante to join them and the Devil Hunter stood up and joined them. "It's a family heirloom that seems to attract trouble wherever it goes and obviously I would like to have some free time without trouble following me around."

"So you want me to babysit this?" Dante said picking up the pendant and looking at it closely. The blue stone in the center seemed so familiar to him, but he couldn't place it. "Okay. Fine I'll do it." As per the deal he made with Roe last night he accepted the job without even asking the woman her name or what it was all about. "I don't have anything planned for the rest of the week."

"Now wait a moment Dante, you don't know the full story." Morrison interjected and the poor woman remained silent as the Demon Slayer just shook his head.

"I know enough." He looked over to the blond woman and asked her honestly. "Did you happen to meet a red headed woman with gray eyes in the last few days?"

"Yes." The blond looked at him in confusion as he stood up with the pendant still in his hand. "I don't see how she has anything to do with this."

"She's a friend." He put the pendant in his pocket. "She told me you would be coming to me today."

"I see." The blond woman stood up and began to leave. "I'll have your payment by the end of the week." She seemed satisfied with the arrangement and that was good enough for Dante. He just hoped that the woman would follow through with the deal and nothing out of the ordinary would happen.

"See you then Ms. Nina." Morrison said as the blond woman walked out of the door and Dante caught on to the name. Something was nagging at him about the whole thing. He couldn't figure it out but he was sure that it had a lot to do with the amulet in his pocket. He didn't bother to watch Nina walk out of the shop because he was too busy thinking about something else.

"Hmmm..."

"What is it?" Morrison's voice caught his attention.

"Nothing, just a hunch." He didn't say anything else as he walked towards the door himself and left the older man by himself.

It wasn't long before he was sitting in Ferdi's diner with the pendant on the table really thinking about what Roe had told him about the whole situation. Maybe there was something more to this, however he couldn't be certain. It wasn't until Lady plopped down in the booth in front of him that he realized there was definitely something going on.

"What the hell is going on with you?" She crossed her arms over her chest as he took a bite of his sundae with a bored look on his face. He was watching her closely because she had sticky fingers and the amulet was out in the open. "You look bored out of your mind."

"I am bored out of my mind." He watched as she casually picked up the amulet and looked at it closely. "Be careful with that. Roe says it attracts the bad guys." He would've been more cynical about it, but in this case he was pretty sure Lady wasn't going to do anything to harm his potential income.

"So this is what she was after then. Figures." The raven haired woman sat the pendant back down on the table in front of him as he sat back with a small smirk. "She does like the prettiest things."

"Yeah, she does." He knew for a fact that Roe could outclass Lady's expensive tastes by leaps and bounds and still be humble about it. Lady sat there with him in silence for a few moments before saying anything else.

"So, how much is this job paying you?" Dante almost rolled his eyes because it never failed. Lady would always bring up his debt to her in some form or another but instead of indulging her he simply took the amulet off the table and put it in his coat pocket. "Oh come on, I wouldn't dream of taking a job out from under your broke ass." She crossed her arms again. "I'm not that cruel."

"Could've fooled me. You have been cruel on more than one occasion." He really didn't care about how she was with him, just the fact that she said some things to Roe way back when to make her run away before even giving them a chance was cruel.

"Whatever. I'm out of here." She stood up from the table and left him sitting there by himself with what was left of his strawberry sundae. He was pretty sure she was going to get herself involved in his business again and maybe this time it would work to his advantage. He tapped his fingers on the table while thinking really hard about his next move.

Maybe it was time to play a little game with the demons who were after the amulet. It would have to wait until after dark so in the meantime he thought about bugging Roe at the museum and maybe she would shed a little more light on the necklace. After all, she knew a lot about artifacts and their connections with mysterious demonic powers and whatnot.

When he did get to the museum he found her in a closed of portion of the museum. Obviously since handing over the welfare of the amulet she decided to go back to work and that was fine because she was safe and not out there doing whatever it was she did. She had on a pair of gloves and was carefully setting a bronze mask on a stand. Roe had not heard him approach but when she turned around to grab the glass box to put over the mask she caught him.

"Did you take the job?" She placed the glass over the mask and wiped it down with a felt cloth to be sure it was void of any scuffs. She relaxed before turning to him and seeing that he had the amulet in his hand. "Nice. You are more trusting than I am."

"Why do you say that?" He watched her as she took off her white cloth gloves and set them down on the cart next to her. Dante liked the way her hair was up in a tight bun and her blouse was a nice shade of blue. It made her eyes pop even more.

"You are doing this because you have one motive and you didn't follow her through two cities." She smiled at him. "I wouldn't trust me either."

"So you want me to give it to you then?" Dante didn't know what she was planning but when she shook her head he inwardly sighed. He could always trust her to do the right thing and even when she had left he still trusted her deep down.

"No. I want you to make sure it doesn't end up in the wrong hands." He stepped closer to her and she actually allowed him to get into her space before he handed the amulet over to her. "This thing has caused so much grief for so many people in the past." She told him looking down at it before flipping it over in the palm of her hand.

"You are saying that its some sort of key then." Roe looked up at him and almost stepped back because he had gotten very close to her, but it was clear to him that she wasn't as startled by this as she made out to be. "Figures." He took it back from her and put it in his pocket.

"It's more or less a key. I mean if you want the short story, an alchemist wanted to control demons and so he did but there was one he couldn't control so he sealed that demon up with really tight barriers that a flea couldn't even get in." She said all in one go. Dante raised an eyebrow at the way she explained it.

"Why do I have a feeling this is all going to go down in a shitty way?" He grabbed her elbow and pulled her closer to him in order to at least get her to spill more. She looked very hesitant to divulge any more information.

"Because it probably will. Dante, the alchemists name was Alan Lowell."


	12. Mark Thy Words

**This is not my favorite story. Just saying. The other ones that I have written after this are much better and most of the characters are better developed. With that in mind, I totally understand if this story doesn't fill your cup. Also, this was written as a prequel to another story, but for the sake of continuity, I uploaded this one to first. The actual first story was written after DMC5. I just…kind of messed up with this one. Not that it's absolute trash, but I really, really do not like this one. Maybe because it takes place during the Anime and…you know what…I'm just going to leave this here. **

**I may just write some little tidbits with Dante, Vergil, and Roe as kids. We shall see. **

The first time Roe had ever encountered a demon was the day before Dante's mother had died and he had disappeared from her childhood. She remembered it like it was yesterday and even the pungent odor that surrounded the area was still fresh in her mind. She remembered its horns and slick black tongue as it stared her down like she was the last morsel in sight. It wasn't until Dante had pushed her out of the way that she remembered to breathe and move her little legs.

Demons were less of an issue for her now as she encountered them frequently in different forms. Most of the time it was Demon's parading around in human form in order to blend in quietly, but she could still smell the slight odor that they carried with them. There was no way to describe the odor, only that it was unique and it smelled similar to sulfur. She could tell by the strength of that odor how long a demon had been in the human realm and if they were wearing skin or if that was just how they looked. It was a messy business.

Which lead her to why she was following Dante through the streets at night. Of course he could smell that odor too, but his sense of smell was much better than hers and he knew exactly where it was coming from. With the amulet as bait, he was trying to draw out the demons to see what was really going on and he had asked her to go with him just for the satisfaction of a midnight walk. Not that she minded. Cade was at Maggie's so she was free for the evening.

"So, let me get this straight, Nina is the descendant of Alan Lowell?" Dante looked down at her as she walked next to him with his hands in his pockets.

"Yes. Basically, the Black House has been trying to find it for well over a century, but with Nina moving about all the time its been hard to track down." She could smell the faint odor in the air that meant something was out and about. "I was hired to find it within two weeks, but when I did manage to talk to Nina, I did a little digging." Roe put her hand on her pistol in preparation for the demon ahead who would probably make its appearance known shortly. Dante stopped in his tracks with a question on his mind.

"What do you do exactly?" He turned around and looked at her, wondering how she got caught up in all of this.

"To put it bluntly, I'm a thief." She said walking past him and without even bumping into him, she was able to get the necklace out of his pocket and kept walking in front of him. Then she turned around with a smirk on her face holding the necklace up for him to see. "See?"

"Very funny. Give that back before something bad happens." Dante noticed something move in the shadows next to the alley she stood in front of and lunged for her. "Roe! Move!" This woman was going to get killed.

"Huh. That's interesting." She said pulling out her pistol as the gaping mouth of a demon came at her, but instead of being able to move, she was suddenly on the ground with Dante standing over her and the pendant has slipped from her hands.

"Hey shit for brains, leave her alone." Dante had his pistols drawn and trained on the demon in front of him. "It's me you want to deal with." He shot the demon in its head, but the creature did not go down that easy.

"If I could just get the magic stone..." The creature had turned its eyes to the sidewalk where the necklace lay and began to reach for it, but Dante got to it first by rolling and then drawing Rebellion off his back. "No...the magic stone! I need it!" The demon roared as it took a swipe at the hunter and Roe scrambled to get out of the way knowing that she was very outmatched here. However, when Dante sliced the demon's arm off, it almost squealed and she almost felt sorry for it.

"Good luck getting it with one arm, Shithead." This was Dante's style of combat. Annoy the demon until it was in a blind rage and then take advantage of the situation. At some point he had put the chain of the necklace in between his teeth so he could use it as a distraction. Everywhere the stone went, the demon's eyes followed, almost like a dog with a tennis ball.

Roe watched as Dante avoided each strike the demon made towards him with cat like reflexes and all while making it look like a walk in the park. She couldn't say she was unimpressed because she knew what Dante had been capable of since they were kids, but she was even more impressed to see how he used the necklace to his advantage. Her eyes followed him as he fought and suddenly she was back in love. Not that she hadn't been in love with him all this time, but it was more of an attraction than anything else.

"Oh no." Roe turned her head to see Nina running up the opposite sidewalk. "Are you okay?" She held her hand out for the red head and Roe gladly took it.

"Yeah, I can't say the same for the demon though." She looked over to Dante who had literally disarmed the demon and stood over it as it gave up the good fight.

"What would a piece of shit like you want with a fancy necklace?" Dante had Rebellion over his shoulder and Ebony pointed at the demon's forehead.

"If I get the magic stone, I will be king of the Demon Realm." Roe heard the broken down demon say as she stepped closer to Dante.

"That's nice." He said before pulling the trigger and ending the demon's misery. She looked at him as he put his gun and Rebellion away, it was like she had seen God. Or if there were a God. She shook her head. Now was not the time for such thoughts.

"Please give it back to me." Roe looked over at Nina who stood behind Dante with her hand over her chest in fear. Nina had a soft heart it seemed and Roe felt nothing but compassion for her because of that. She also knew that was where little Patty got her compassion from too. "I don't want to put anyone else in danger." The thief watched as Dante took the necklace into his hand and looked at it closely. Knowing him, he wouldn't give it back until the job was completely done, that was how it worked. She also knew he did not want to put anyone in danger either. "I will pay you to give it back."

"Who is he?" The hunter motioned to the man who was walking up the street and Roe's eyes turned to see the man that had hired her in the first place.

"That's Simon, my agent." The blond woman said as the long haired man walked up to stand next to her. Roe knew something was off about this whole thing and honestly she knew exactly who 'Simon' was. "He was the one who told me about a man that would do odd jobs for a bit of cash and that led me to you."

"Pleased to meet you." He held out his hand to Dante who didn't take it. The distrustful look in Dante's eyes explained everything because he could probably smell it too.

"Sure. Whatever." He looked at Nina. "Do you have the money now?"

"No, but I can pay you tomorrow." Nina said taking a step towards Dante thinking she could get the necklace back if she tried hard enough, but Roe stopped her putting a hand on her forearm and shaking her head.

"Fine, this stays in my keeping until tomorrow." He put the necklace back in his pocket as Patty came running around the corner. Roe was very surprised to see the young girl out in the city after dark and her instinct kicked in to grab the girl.

"Mommy!" Roe couldn't help herself as Patty started to run and then tripped over her own feet. The girl was her son's friend and if anything she meant something to Dante as well.

"I'll bring you the money tomorrow afternoon." Nina said in a rush to get away from the scene suddenly as Roe found herself helping Patty up from the sidewalk.

"Mommy! Don't go!" She tried to take off running but Roe grabbed her and held her tight. "Let me go! That's my Mommy!"

"Patty, stop. You don't understand." The woman held the little blond girl tightly as she began to cry and Roe looked up to see Dante with an impassive look. "Look at me, sweetheart." The girl turned around in Roe's arms and looked at her. "You will see her again okay?"

"Mommy." The little girl leaned onto Roe's shoulder and started to cry harder. It was only natural as the girl had obviously been looking for her mother for a long time.

"Come by the shop in the morning, that woman you think is your mother will be there and you can find out if it's her." Dante said with little to no empathy on the matter and Roe glared up at him as he put his hands in his pockets. Patty turned around and gave him a glare.

"She is my Mommy!" She pushed herself out of Roe's arms and went to kick him in the shin, but the chestnut-haired woman was able to stop her. "Dante you jerk!" Roe looked up at him with a glare before standing up and putting her hands on Patty's shoulders.

"Don't worry about him, he is a big jerk." She saw how his face turned sour with a look of betrayal because she took the girl's side over his. "I'll take you home, Patty." She steered the young girl away from Dante and towards home leaving the half demon to contemplate on what just happened.

"Stupid Dante." Patty said as she walked next to Roe in the streets after leaving Dante far, far behind. "He always does this."

"He isn't all that bad, but yeah, he did mess up tonight." Roe said with a smile as she looked down at her companion. Dante had always been unable to show exactly what he was conveying when it came to what he thought and felt. So, when he said what he did to Patty, Roe knew he was trying not to get the little girl's hopes up. Saving her heartbreak if it turned out Nina wasn't who Patty thought she was. It was his way of execution that had made them both angry.

"What do you see in him, Miss Roe?" The question wasn't meant as an insult, but more of a want for clarity, and Roe happily obliged the little girl. She thought about it for a moment to come up with a truthful answer and it was simple. "How can a nice lady like you fall for a jerk like Dante?"

"Honestly, I don't really know myself. When we were kids, he was so mean to me, always putting slimy things down the back of my shirt. Calling me names, you know the things little boys do to get your attention." She smiled at the memories running through her head and then stopped for a moment, causing Patty to look at her. "But, when I was in trouble or someone else hurt my feelings, he was there."

"That is so not the Dante I know." Patty said frowning. If Roe could take her into the past to see how the man she loved was as a child, maybe then Patty would understand. "He is such a jerk."

"He comes off that way. Before Cade was born, Dante was the same kid I had always known. More grown up, but still the same kid. He had changed a bit, but you could still see that playful nature in him." As opposed to now, where that playful nature had all but disappeared. "Meeting him again, he is totally different. Almost like he is searching for himself and he doesn't know how to let go of the past."

"That doesn't excuse what he did." Patty said walking forward and Roe followed her.

"No, absolutely not." She smiled thinking about how much this little girl reminded her of herself as a kid. "I was like you when I was your age."

"Really?" Patty swung herself around with little stars in her eyes as though she had just been handed the biggest compliment in her entire life.

"Yep. I liked dresses and the latest fashions. My mother is from France so, I always had the latest fashion from Paris." She remembered how Dante would try to compliment her on her dresses but always ended up getting them dirty. "She dressed me to the nines for everything and if I wanted something, my father would get it for me. You could say I was spoiled rotten."

"What happened?" Patty said after seeing the sad look on Roe's face after mentioning her father.

"Well, after Dante disappeared, my father died and then my mother sent me off to boarding school while she traveled the world." Her mother had practically abandoned her for a rich lifestyle and suddenly, all the material things weren't so material anymore. She remembered going to her closet after her mother told her she was going to boarding school and ripping up all those pretty dresses. She did it to make her mother mad at first, but what she really felt was extreme sorrow over the loss of her father and Dante and his family. "I was so angry with her. When I turned eighteen, she had already enrolled me into college at Harvard without my permission and I told her no." Her mother barely talked to her after that.

"She's your mom, how could you be so angry with her?" Be that as it may, Roe's relationship with her mother was a very strange one. Her mother basically used her as a dress-up doll rather than a daughter. Image and reputation was everything.

"Because I didn't believe she loved me." Those were the words that could turn good relationships into bad ones and she dearly hoped that the reason Nina left her daughter alone was because she did loved her.

"I'm sorry." Patty grabbed Roe's hand and held it tight as they walked and the woman smiled.

"There is nothing to be sorry for." She squeezed Patty's hand. "Dante will have everything to be sorry for when I see him again." She looked down at the little girl and smirked.

"That jerk. He always ruffles my feathers." The little girl put a sour look on her face and Roe couldn't help but giggle a little.

"I think you remind him of me." She was almost positive that was what it was.

"Well he should treat me better then. I always have to clean up after him because he is so messy and then he always says he will do something and never gets around to doing it because he is always broke." That was the story of Dante's life and it wouldn't surprise Roe at all if he had a large stash of money in a bank somewhere he refused to touch because he didn't care about it all that much. He was simple. He preferred the things that mattered, not the materialistic.

"Well, at least he is there when you need him." Roe smiled at her son's friend and then thought of an idea. "Look, why don't you stay at my place tonight? Cade is there and I do have a couple cartons of ice cream. Then tomorrow you and Cade can go to Dante's shop together." Since the necklace was going to be out of Dante's hands tomorrow and she didn't mind it. Although, there was that nagging feeling in the back of her mind that things could go wrong. Very wrong.

"I guess, but I do have to let the Sisters know I'll be staying with you." Patty said with a grin.

"Cade will be very happy to show you his room." Roe said as she thought about how happy her son would be on seeing Patty. Hopefully, this mess with Alan's Tear would be over with soon and she had an opportunity to get rid of that necklace for good.


	13. Runaway

"What are you two doing here?" Dante looked down at the two kids in front of him who happened to just show up at Devil May Cry together. He sighed as Cade gave him a big grin and Patty had her arms crossed over her chest after seeing the mess from the day before had not been cleaned up yet.

"Mom dropped us off." The Devil hunter looked at his son and ran a hand through his hair before walking away.

"Do I look like a babysitter, Morrison?" Cade heard his father say as he went to sit in the chair at the desk. The little boy looked around at everything seeing the Jukebox in the corner and the drum set that sat there unused. There was so much stuff that he couldn't believe this was his father's place. "Geeze."

"Lighten up, Dante. It'll do you some good." The black man sitting on the couch smoking a cigar said keeping an eye on the half breed's son as he moved around looking at everything. "He looks just like you, now that I see you two in the same room together."

"Yeah, that's the problem." Cade heard his father say, but didn't really think anything of it. So, what if it was a problem, at least his father liked him. "At least he isn't like me."

"No, there can't be two Dante's running around. I think this world has enough with just one." Cade turned to look at where he father sat with his feet up on the desk and his attention turned to a magazine. He wondered if his father would teach him how to play the drums one day.

"Cade, want to play?" He turned to the sound of Patty's voice as she picked up a cue stick for the pool table and he walked over to join her. "Do you know how to play?"

"No, what is it?" He asked as she handed him the other cue stick laying on the inside of the table.

"It's called billiards." Dante's voice came from where he was sitting and then the sound of the chair legs hitting the floor "Or pool. Whichever you want to call it." Cade looked over to where he saw his father standing up to walk over to them, putting a pendant on his desk. He came to stand next to Cade and he held his hand out for the boy to give him the cue stick. "The object of the game is to pocket the eight-ball before your opponent does and to do that, you have to pocket all the other ones first." Cade watched as his father aimed the tip of the stick at the white ball and hit it. The white ball hit a blue striped one sending it to the corner pocket.

"Can I try?" Cade was a couple inches taller than the table, so Dante picked him up after handing him the cue stick so he could hit the white ball. The smile on Cade's face was so bright, Morrison could be heard chuckling at the scene before him.

"Go for the red stripped one in and try to get it in the side pocket." Dante held his son so he could hit the cue ball, and Cade did his best to hit it hard enough, but the ball fell short of hitting the stripped one he was going for. "Nice try, kid. It's Patty's turn now."

"Maybe you should get the kid a box to stand on." Morrison said with a chuckle as he took a drag of his cigar. He must have found it amusing to see Dante handle his son like he did, but at least he was trying.

"There's an empty milk crate in the corner over there, kid." Cade heard and looked up at his father with a grin and in response Dante put a hand on his had and ruffled his hair.

"See, wasn't so bad now was it?" Morrison couldn't help but to tease Dante for the way he acted around his son. He watched as the kid went over to the corner under the stairs and grabbed the empty milk crate before running back to the pool table and setting it on the floor.

"It's on now Patty!" He pointed to the little girl who just seemed so melancholy, like she didn't want to be there, but at the same time she wanted to see her mother. "Patty?" Cade cocked his head in concern for her but she just shook it off as she readied herself to hit the white ball in the corner.

"If it's a competition you want, you're gonna get it." She poked the tip of her tongue out of the corner of her mouth as she concentrated on hitting the cue ball.

"She's late." Morrison said from his spot on the couch as the two children took turns hitting the balls back and forth. "She was supposed to be here an hour ago."

"Are you sure she is trustworthy?" Cade listened to his father as he watched Patty's face go from passive to sour in an instant before he hit the cue ball. He was getting concerned because it seemed as though she was angry with his father about something. What it was, he didn't know if he wanted to know.

"She did leave out the little fact of the necklace attracting demons." Cade watched as Patty readied herself with a glare on her face. "You said Roe knew about it."

"Yeah, but you know what I mean." The conversation was making Patty scowl even more as Dante kept saying more. "Roe told me about that part."

"So you think Nina is a demon then?"

"Not necessarily, but I don't think she is who she claims to be." Dante's voice was full of suspicion. "Where is she staying anyway?" Cade watched as Patty took aim at the cue ball.

"I think it's the Grand Día Hotel, near the Museum." Patty hit the cue ball as Morrison answered the question and hit it hard sending all the balls flying off the table. Cade heard his father stand up and growl out himself.

"Please, don't make this place more of a mess than it already is." His father was distracted enough for Patty to run to the desk and grab the necklace before running out the doors.

"Patty! Wait up!" Cade said before going after the girl who was already running down the sidewalk. "Where are you going!?"

"I'm going find my Mommy!" She yelled back at him as she ran and Cade sighed before running after her. His mother was going to be angry and then he had no idea what his father would be just as upset, although that didn't seem to be the case because he didn't follow.

"Wait! I'm going with you!" He caught up with her and grabbed her hand. "Dad's friend said she was at the hotel by where my mom works. Come on! I know how to get there." He grabbed her hand and pulled her along.

Roe had hoped that Nina had already returned with the pendant when she got to the woman's door. The plan was to get the pendant from the woman after she returned, but there seemed to be a hitch in her plans as she saw Simon come around the corner. She quickly ran across the hall and out of his line of sight before peaking around her own corner to watch him.

"Miss Nina?" He knocked on the door and waited for an answer before going in. Obviously this was going to be a little harder than she thought. Simon was definitely not who he seemed to be and she really didn't want to deal with him.

She quietly came from her hiding spot to find that there was a small crack in the door. She listened to the conversation the two were having.

"I would like you to bring this to Devil May Cry and get the pendant for me." So she hadn't gone to Dante, this was a huge change of plans.

"Why didn't you go? It's because of that little girl, isn't it?" Nina really didn't want to bring her daughter into this and Roe knew exactly what she felt on that particular subject. "Patty."

"She has nothing to do with this." Nina's voice became defensive at the mention of the little girl's name and Roe listened intently. "Simon, what happened to your hand?"

"It's nothing, just spilled a little coffee this morning." How strange.

"But, you said you didn't like coffee." Roe raised an eyebrow at that little confession as she saw Simon move from the window taking off his glasses.

"I did, didn't I? My mistake." That look in his eyes reminded her of a predator circling its prey and she barged into the room with her pistol drawn.

"Nina! Move away from him!" The blond woman looked to Roe and saw that the pistol was trained on Simon waiting for him to make a move, but instead of acting like he was surprised, he smirked. "What the..."

"That is the thing about low ranking demons, we can't take human form so we have to wear human skin in order to blend in." Suddenly Simon's hands went to the bottom of his chin and pulled at the skin there, slowly ripping off pieces of flesh in the most grotesque manner Roe had ever seen. One piece after another and she was too shocked to even pull the trigger on her pistol. "After all, what is a wolf to do without sheep's clothing?" The ugly man that Roe had met some time ago in a bar looked dead at her, covered in a layer of blood.

"You!" She fired a shot at him, but he was able to evade it before reaching her and knocking her to the floor.

"Hush now, we don't want to alert anyone." He grinned as he looked down at Roe while Nina had found a lamp and went to hit him over the head with it, however, it didn't do any damage. "Women are such stupid creatures." Roe put her piston on him again only for him to knock it out of her hand and then backhand Nina so hard she fell down unconscious.

"Fuck you!" Roe kicked at him, hitting him in the shins, but all that did was make him falter just a little.

"Dante must like his women feisty." He said before kicking her in the jaw and causing everything to go dark.

Patty and Cade stood outside of the hotel looking up at how massive the building was. They had gotten there right after dark and the amount of people coming and going from the building was enough for them to slip in unnoticed. He looked over at Patty then saw a bellhop rolling a cart full of luggage into the front doors after removing them from a taxi.

"I have an idea." He told her grabbing her hand and running towards the cart. "I'll go in and get everyone's attention while you find out where your mom is." Cade said before walking through the doors and then started screaming and crying "Mommy! Where are you!"

"Oh the poor thing, he can't find his mother." With all the fake crying and yelling Cade was putting up, it got the attention of some of the staff members and they went running to him.

"I can't find Mommy!" He had his hands over his eyes and was doing a very good job of crying as Patty got herself out of sight and inside the lobby of the hotel.

"Where is your Mommy?" One of the staff members asked him as he stood there bawling loudly.

"I don't know!" Patty heard as she was able to get behind the reception desk to see the list of names and room numbers. She looked through them until she found her mother's name listed there along with the room number then scampered quickly to the elevators as Cade spotted her. He watched as she held up her hands to tell him which floor he needed to go to. He saw her get on the elevator and then quickly stopped crying, finding a random woman and running too her and grabbing her hand. "Mommy! I found you! Don't ever leave me again." The dark haired woman looked down at him in disgust as she went to the elevator herself and Cade let go of her hand to get in. "Sorry, Miss, you look like my mom." He smiled up at the woman he shared the lift with who just sneered at him and said nothing.

When he got to the thirtieth floor he got out of the elevator to see Patty standing there patiently waiting for him and then he grinned seeing that his plan had worked. Not bad for a seven year old.

"That was genius." Patty said as they started running down the hall to where the room her mother stayed in was located. "Oh no." She said seeing the door had a large gap in it and then hearing a very familiar voice.

"I see that you are awake now." Patty knew that voice. It was that creepy man, Cid, that Dante always had the unfortunate pleasure of running into. The same one that tried to kill her before. "And if it isn't Dante's little whore."

"Shove it up your ass, shithead!" Cade's eyes widened as he heard his mother's voice. "I'll kill you!" He didn't think he ever heard those words come out of his mom's mouth before and he suddenly realized she was held captive by some creep.

"He has my mom!" Cade said as Patty opened the door and saw her mother tied to a chair while Cade's mother was laying on the floor with her hands and feet bound up behind her back.

"Mommy." Patty walked into the dark room without second thought holding the pendant close to her chest as Cade followed her in with a furious look on his face.

"Hey you creep! Let go of my Mom!" Roe had to roll her eyes at how much her son looked like his father in that moment then she became furious with Dante for even letting their son out of sight. "I'm gonna kick your butt!" She watched as her son charged at the ugly demon and jumped up to kick him in the face. "Hah!"

"Cade!" Roe watched as the demon grabbed her son by the back of his shirt and threw him into the wall. The little boy slumped down and looked up with half lidded eyes before falling over onto his side. "No."

"Stop!" Patty yelled with tears lining her eyes. "Is this what you want?" She held up the pendant to show Cid that she did indeed have it.

"I knew you would bring it to me willingly." Cid said approaching her.

"Patty, what are you doing? Run!" Nina yelled at her daughter and all Roe could do was watch as Cid whispered to her about what he wanted to do.

"Okay, I'll do it." She said before walking to the podium in the center of the room. Roe had to close her eyes because everything that she had tried to prevent was about to happen and somehow she had been caught up in a deadly game. "I'll do it." The little girl whispered knowing she was likely dooming them all, but she did it anyway. She put the pendant on the podium.

"What have we done?" Nina choked out as Roe closed her eyes.

They were all doomed.


	14. Ace's High

**Okay, this is the last chapter of this story before I go into the next one. However, there is a series of one shots that I will be posting that kind of gives you a glimpse into domestic life with Dante and Roe…and of course Cade (who is too adorable for his own good). Then it will go into the next story. Which takes place during DMC4 and will not be an exact copy of the game at all, it's going to have an extra character in it and that just changes a lot of events (but still keeping with the storyline and plot of the game) so, not too bad. Any who, I shall see you guys in the next story. **

Cade didn't think he would be following Patty back into the hotel even after he had woken up from being tossed into a wall. He also didn't think that he would see a giant Demon sitting on top of the hotel once he did wake up. All of it had happened so fast he didn't stop to really think about it or really react to a giant demon that, up until now, didn't exist.

"Dante is in there!" She said before taking off and going into the building with Cade right behind her and her mother right behind him. Morrison even decided to follow as Roe stayed behind with Lady and Trish.

"Patty! Wait!" Cade yelled as she dove into the stairwell and started to climb up the stairs. It was going to be a long way up, but Cade could handle it, though it seemed Morrison was having some trouble. "Where are we going?"

"To get Dante." At the mention of his father's name, the boy realized he didn't know where his father was to begin with. He had been knocked out by that creepy guy and then the next thing he knew he was laying on a bench.

"Wait...my dad is here?" Cade was running up the stairs as fast as he could to catch up to her and trying to figure out when this little piece of information came out. "Where is he?"

"He went into the portal! Come on!" Patty yelled at him getting enough questions from him and he looked back to see if Morrison was okay. The old man just waved at him to keep going and so he did, finally catching up with Patty.

"Whoa." He said as they reached the top of the stairwell and saw nothing but blazing fire that took up most of the floor. How were they supposed to get passed this?

"We have to get through here somehow." Patty's mother said as Morrison finally caught up to them and then saw what was in front of them. The old man disappeared after thinking of a solution to their problem.

Cade watched as Patty spoke softly to her mother and then apologized for everything. However, Patty's mother felt she was the one at fault for all of this and honestly, Cade didn't really care whose fault it was, just if this nightmare would end. The only thing that he really wanted to do was get to his Dad somehow and get him out of whatever place he was trapped in. He watched as Patty and her mother embraced each other as the sprinklers came on, drenching all of them in the process of putting out the flames.

"There, that should cool things off a bit." Morrison said coming in to see the mother and daughter hugging each other closely with Cade standing to the side as though he didn't want to be there. "Oh. Well then."

"Come on Morrison, we gotta go get Dad." Cade said before leaving everyone behind and moving through the hallways back to the room that held the summoning circle on the floor. The room was completely empty this time and the windows were broken in some places, but the circle was still intact. "Great, how do we get to Dad?"

"I don't know." Patty said coming up to stand next to him as they looked over the room for any kind of clue, but there was none. "There has to be a way!" She yelled out.

"Kids! Watch out!" Nina's voice came out of nowhere just like the demons who had grabbed both Patty and Cade, holding them tight.

"Get off me!" The little boy was clawing and biting at the demon's hands that held on to him but all that did was make it hold onto him tighter. "Let go of me Freak!" He ground his teeth together as Patty let out a scream and then a bright light appeared from her chest. Suddenly Cade was on the ground and trying to figure out what just happened before a he saw Patty running towards a light that had appeared from the floor. "Patty!" He ran after her and jumped in right after her.

When he opened his eyes, Cade found himself in a dark place he had never been before and when he rolled over he saw Patty laying there still unconscious, holding her locket tightly in her fist. He crawled over to her and tried to shake her awake, but instead all he got was a tired moan from her. He wasn't about to go off on his own, that would be stupid and he didn't know where he was. He shook Patty again and this time she opened her eyes slowly.

"Where are we?" She said sitting up and looking around at the dark world she had found herself in. Cade stood up and offered her a hand.

"I don't know." He looked around for a clue, but there was nothing to really see. It was almost like they were in a dense forest in the middle of the night.

"Come on. We have to find Dante." Patty grabbed Cade's hand and allowed him to help her up as the little blue stone in her necklace glowed faintly in a direction. It was almost as if it was tuning itself to what she desired most. "I'm sorry I dragged you into this." She said as they walked side by side on the small path. The little hitch in her voice conveyed her feelings on the matter and Cade just grabbed her hand.

"It's okay." He squeezed it as they came to a ledge of some sort and a narrow path that lead to a sight Cade thought he would never see. "Dad?"

"Dante!"

With his long red coat blowing in whatever unnatural breeze and pinned to a stone cross by his own sword, was Dante. Cade felt his little heart shatter thinking that his father could possibly be dead and then he couldn't take it anymore. He cried out before running across the narrow pathway almost to be swallowed up by the darkness below as it began to crumble. It wasn't until he heard Patty scream that he realized she had fallen. Cade stopped to see where Patty was clinging on to a ledge for dear life and grabbed her arms, pulling her up with tears in his eyes. He was working on adrenaline alone at this point and then kept going until he saw the ghoulish figures with white masks pulling the cross down into the darkness.

"NO! That's my Dad! You can't have him!" He jumped across the gap and grabbed on to what he could which was Dante's waist and started to stomp on the faces of the ghouls. "Get off of him!" He yelled through his tears.

"Don't worry Dante, we will save you!" Patty said jumping across and grabbing on to Dante's neck, struggling to get her arms around it and then she grabbed on to the sword to try and pull it out. "I'll get this out of you."

"Patty!" One of the ghouls had grabbed on to Cade's ankle and was pulling him down, but she grabbed on to his arm and helped him up to where he was hanging off the cross itself. "Dad, wake up!"

"Dante! I didn't mean it." Patty said throwing her arms around the devil hunters neck. "I'm sorry I bother you about cleaning all the time and I'm sorry that I am annoying, but I don't mean to be. Please wake up. Please." She said crying. "Please so you and Miss Roe can be together again and Cade can have his dad." Cade just looked at his friend who seemed to be so remorseful about something she apparently had done. She was about to say more when she was grabbed by the ugly man and dragged down into the darkness with a scream.

"PATTY!" Cade reached for her falling head first into the mass of ghouls waiting for him only to stop short and feel something grab on to his ankle.

"Gotcha." Cade looked up to see his father holding on to him with a smirk on his face. "Hey kid."

"Dad!" Dante swung his son up to where he could grab on to him and then things got interesting. "You're alive!" The kid grabbed on to him with tears in his eyes, totally forgetting about the sword still in his chest.

"I was just taking a nap." Dante said before looking down at the ghouls below him and seeing Patty swallowed up by the darkness. "Come on kid, lets get out of here." Cade swung around to where he was on Dante's back as the man dived off the small platform they were on and into the darkness, then following it down.

When Patty woke up from what she could only assume was a very real nightmare, she put a hand to her forehead to wipe the sweat that had accumulated on her brow. The only thing that she remembered was finding Dante in that hellish place and that he looked as though he were dead to the world. Standing up, she put those thoughts behind her as demons surrounded her on all sides, trying to grab at her. It wasn't until the giant golden demon covered the windows that she realized perhaps this wasn't a dream at all.

"Hello there little Lady." It said and she backed up a step, trying to remain calm, but inside she was terrified. "I wanted to thank you for giving me the opportunity to make this world mine." The laugh the demon gave was so sinister that she felt as though she were not going to make it out of there alive, and that would've been the case. More demons surrounded her and got ever closer, brushing past her as they circled her until gunshots rang out and they scattered like cockroaches. "What?"

"I swear, you big shot demon wannabe's always try and mess up a good nap." Dante stepped out of the shadows with his two guns aimed at the large demon outside the window with Cade's arms wrapped around his neck from the back. "What's the matter? See something you don't like?"

"Dante?" Patty's voice caught his attention. "Is that you?"

"Who else could it be? I'm the only good looking guy for miles around." He said as Cade dropped down from his back and went over to the girl in front of them. "Maybe not the only one, but you get the point." He said as Patty's gaze landed on the sword.

"Dante, you're..." He looked down at himself to see that Rebellion was still lodged in his chest.

"Oh right. I forgot about that." Dante said before pulling the sword out of his chest causing blood to spray everywhere as his body had healed around it. "Someone was very mean and tried to play a nice little trick." He watched as Patty collapsed in front of him and Cade barely caught her.

"Dad?"

"Oh now you show up after making me wait so long." Morrison's voice sounded out. "Where the hell were you?"

"Taking a nap." He wasn't lying. "Get these three out of here, I've got a ugly old fart to deal with."

"Be careful, Dad." Cade said as he tried to drag Patty over to Morrison and her mother.

"Don't worry, Kid, I've got this. I'll be sure to give him a proper beating for all of this." Cade watched as his father swung the blood off his sword and then went after the giant demon without hesitation. Never in his short life, had Cade been so proud of someone besides his mother.

And when Cade saw his mother again, he was in her arms in an instant.

Roe checked him over for any scrapes or cuts, but found none and she was very thankful for it. She looked up as there was a big explosion up on the roof of the hotel and then caught a good glimpse of the man she loved more than anyone in the world. He was alive and he was going to save them all.

"About time he showed up, I was thinking we were going to lose for a second there." Lady said looking over to Trish who shrugged as she let another round of bullets go. "Damn him for making us do all this work and no pay for it."

"At least he is alive." Roe said holding on to her son for dear life as she watched the battle on the roof top unfold. She wasn't really concerned for Dante because she had absolute faith in his abilities and in him as well. That is how much she really trusted him.

Just as the sun rose over the horizon, it grew quiet and everyone below had gone still as well. Lady and Trish looked at each other then over to Roe who was just as concerned because there was no sign of Abigail or Dante, but then the sound of a gunshot seemed to give them all relief. Roe sighed as she hugged her son and then waited for some sign of Dante.

"That jerk. He made us do all this work so he could take a nap." Lady said as he appeared out of the building twenty minutes after the gunshot. "I should charge him double."

"Ditto." Trish agreed as she started to walk away with the raven-haired woman. "I'm up for a nice cup of coffee, how about you?" She stretched her arms over her head as she walked next to Lady.

"Sounds good to me as long as you're buying." Roe shook her head because those two were alike as far as treating Dante with little respect.

"Dante!" Roe and Cade looked up to see Patty running towards the half demon at breakneck speed before plowing into him. Good thing he could take a hit from a little girl because he absolutely looked like he could use a long massage. Roe blushed thinking about that before walking in his direction with Cade following closely behind her.

"Dad!" Then Cade ran at him and unfortunately, Dante couldn't take a hit from his own son and almost fell backwards when Cade tackled him. "You did it!" Roe saw how Dante flinched as her son seemed to cut off his air supply by wrapping his arms tightly around his neck.

"Cade, could you please cut me some slack here, I'm injured." Both Cade and Patty backed off the 'injured' man in front of them and looked at each other sheepishly.

"Sorry." They both said at the same time looking back up at him with apologetic eyes.

"Don't sweat it, I'll be okay." Dante said going up to Patty and putting his hands on her shoulders. "I think it's time for you to go with your mother." The blond girl looked up at him with wide eyes. "I was wrong, Patty." Roe almost had a heart attack. Dante always had a hard time admitting when he was wrong about something and the fact that he was admitting it to someone he had hurt, was both sweet and it showed his true character. He put a hand on her head in affection and Cade gave her a smile.

"You can always come by, it's not like we can't be friends." Cade said to his friend who was almost on the brink of tears, but they were happy tears.

"Thank you, Dante." Patty said before running over to her mother and walking away from the rubble around them.

"Well, that was eventful." Roe said coming up to stand next to her son's father who was very focused on watching the mother and daughter walking away happily to start on their own adventure. "I felt completely useless the whole time."

"I wouldn't say useless." He grunted as Cade sat down on a pile of rubble next to them. "So, what's next?"

"I don't know. That's for you to decide." Roe said as she saw her son's eyes start to droop. "I thought about..." She didn't get to finish her sentence before he just reached out and grabbed her before pulling her close. She looked up at him before he leaned down to kiss her deeply, something he should've done a very long time ago, but for whatever reason couldn't. It was like fireworks going off in her mind and then her hands found their way to his hair before she couldn't hold her breath anymore. "Yeah, that will do it." She said putting her hands on his chest.

"Whoa." They both turned to see Cade sitting there with his eyes wide. "Are you guys going to get married now?"

"No!" The two adults said at the same time.

"I mean, a date would be a nice start." The chestnut-haired woman said looking back at the man she truly loved. "Maybe tomorrow night?"

"Seven?"

"Sure."

_Two months later..._

"Hah! Read'em and weep Dad!" Cade said putting his hand of cards down on the table. Four of a kind against Dante's Royal Flush. The kid was getting good. "I'll be taking those chips now."

"You can't even beat your own son, that's so pathetic." Lady said from the other side of the poker table they had set up in the shop.

"Where did you learn to play like that?" Dante couldn't believe that he lost to his own son to begin with and now he needed to know just how the kid learned to count cards. "Don't say it." He held up his hand knowing exactly who was the person responsible.

"It was Aunt Lady." The woman in question held up her hand for a high five with her nephew and Cade gladly did so with a broad grin on his face before raking in his chips from the pot.

"Looks like you owe me even more money." She said picking up the deck of cards and gathering all the discarded ones to put them back in and shuffle. "I suppose poor Cade will not have a trust fund to work out of when he gets older." Lady said winking.

"Just deal the cards already." He looked over at Trish who was sitting there with an amused smile on her face. "You've been quiet over there."

"I'm just enjoying the show." She said as the cards were dealt.

"So, who's winning?" Roe said as she came in from Dante's small kitchen with two beers in her hands. "By the look on Dante's face and the pile of chips that Cade has, I think I know the answer." She smiled as she walked over to Dante's side and sat down in his lap before handing him a beer. "You still can't win."

"Maybe you can help?" He said kissing her on the cheek and showing her his cards.

"No, Mom, that's cheating!" Cade stood up and threw down his cards, pointing at his father. "He isn't playing fair!" Dante looked at his son and smirked.

"I'm not playing, she is." He handed Roe the cards and everyone knew that Roe was a serious threat at cards, they may as well fold and go home now. "I'm just going to sit here and watch."

"Momma's about to teach you a lesson little man." She said discarding two of her five cards and then putting up her chips.

"I fold." Trish said before getting up from her chair and then Lady followed her lead. This was going to be bloody.

"You might as well fold, Kid, she's going to slay you." Dante took a swig of his beer and watched as Roe punished her son with a Royal Straight Flush, Ace high.

Spades take all.


End file.
